LOAD CHARACTERISTICS

&
ESTIMATION OF LOAD

Reference :Electrical Power Distribution System

Engineering
Author: Tarun Gonen
Chapter: 2 upto 2.2.
 BASIC DEFINITIONS

LOAD
Any device or circuit that consumes electric power Or
Any device or apparatus that draws electric current from supply
system is said to impose a load on the system. The term “LOAD”
(in electrical) is used to:

 To indicate any device that consumes electrical energy.

 To indicate power required from given supply circuit.
 To indicate the current or power passing through transmission
line.

The load may be resistive, inductive, capacitive, or some

combination of them.
CONNECTED LOAD
It is ‘ the sum of the continuous ratings of all loads connected to
the system or any part thereof.

DEMAND
The demand of an installation of a system is “the load that is
drawn from the source of supply at the receiving terminals
averaged over a certain period of time”. e.g., Daily demand,
Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, yearly, etc.
The load may be given in

 Kilowatts (KW)
 Kilovars (KVAr)
 Kilovoltamperes (KVA)
 Kiloamperes (KA)
 Amperes (A)
MAXIMUM DEMAND OR PEAK LOAD
The greatest load drawn during the specific period of time. For
example, the specified demand might be maximum of all
demands such as daily, weekly, monthly, or annual.
Knowledge of maximum demand helps in determining the installed
capacity of a generating stations. The generating station must be capable
of meeting the maximum demand. Hence the cost of plant and
equipment increases with the increase in maximum demand.

DEMAND INTERVAL
It is the period over which the load is averaged. There are two
types of demands:

1. Instantaneous Demand: Demand at any particular time.

2. Sustained Demand: Demand over a certain period of time.
DEMAND FACTOR (DF)

Maximum Demand
DF 
Total Connected Load

In practice consumers do not use all the devices at full load simultaneously. The
maximum demand of each consumer is, therefore, less than his connected load.
The demand factor depends upon the nature of load. Lighting loads have higher
demand factors than power loads. The demand factor is usually less than 1.0

AVERAGE LOAD OR AVERAGE DEMAND

energy consumed in a given period ( KWh )

Average Load ( KW ) 
hours in that time period
LOAD FACTOR
Average Load
Load Factor 
Peak Load
It is the ratio of the average load over a given period of time to the maximum
demand (peak load) occurring in that period.
Average Load
Load Factor 
Peak Load
energy consumed during T hours

peak energy consumed in T hours
total KWh during 24 h of the day
Daily load factor 
( peak load in KW )  (24 h)

total KWh during the month

Monthly load factor 
( peak load in KW )  (number of hours in the month)

total KWh during a year

Annual load factor 
( peak load in KW )  (8760 h)
Load factor plays an important role on the cost of generation per unit (KWh). The higher the
load factor, the lesser will be the cost of generation per unit for the same maximum
demand.
DIVERSITY FACTOR
The maximum demands of the individual consumers of a group are not likely to occur
simultaneously. Thus, there is a diversity in the occurrence of the loads. Due to this
diverse nature of the load, power is never required to supply all connected loads to
their full capacity at the same time.
Diversity factor can be defined as;
sum of individual max imum demands
FD 
conincident max imum demand
D1  D2  D3  . . .  Dn
FD 
Dg The value of diversity factor is
Or generally greater than 1.0. with a
n
high value representing a good
D
i 1
i
diversity and 1.0 represents a
poor diversity.
FD  FD  1
Dg
Where
Di  max imum demand of load i, disregarding time of occurance
Dg  D1  2  3  ....  n
 coincident max imum demand of group of n loads
Diversity factor can be defined for loads, substations, feeders, and generating
stations.
LOAD DIVERSITY
It is the difference between the sum of the peaks of two or more individual loads
and the peak of the combined load.
 n 
Load diversity    Di   Dg
 i 1 

UTILIZATION FACTOR Fu
It is the ratio of maximum demand of a system to the rated capacity of the system
max imum demand
Fu  Fu  1
rated system capacity

The utilization factor can also be found for a part of the system.
COINCIDENCE FACTOR
It is the reciprocal of diversity factor.
 PLANT FACTOR OR CAPACITY FACTOR

actual energy produced or sup plied in time T

Plant factor 
max imum plant rating  T

Plant factor is mostly used in generation studies. For example

actual annual generation
annual plant factor 
max imum plant rating

If the the plant is always running at its rated capacity , the capacity factor is 1.0 (100%).
It is different from load factor as the rated capacity of each plant is always greater than
the max imum demand .
peak load
capacity factor   load factor
plant capacity
if plant capacity equals to peak load then
capacity factor  load factor
LOSS FACTOR
IT is the ratio of the average power loss to the peak load power loss during the
specified period of time.

average power loss

FLS 
power loss at peak load
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOAD AND LOSS FACTORS
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOAD AND LOSS FACTORS
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOAD AND LOSS FACTORS
Load factor can be related to loss factor in three different cases.

CASE 1:
OFF PEAK load is zero. So,

That is, load factor is equal to loss fator and they are equal to t/T constant.

CASE 2:
T 0, So
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LOAD AND LOSS FACTORS

CASE 3:
Load is steady. That is t approaches to T. Difference between peak and off peak
loads is negligible. Therefore, Loss factor approaches to load factor.
So, we can say that in general, value of loss factor is:
LOAD CURVE
LOAD CURVE
LOAD CURVE is a graphical representation between load in KW (or MW) in
proper time (in hours) sequence. It shows the variation of load on the power
station.
Daily load curve of a system is not the same for all days. It differs from day – to –
day and season – to – season.

INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM LOAD CURVE

 Load variation during different hours of the day.
 Peak load.
 Area under the curve gives total energy generated in the period under consideration.
 Area under the curve divided by total number of hours gives average load.

UTILITY OF LOAD CURVES

 To decide the installed capacity of power station.

 Choose the most economical sizes of various generating units.
 To estimate the generating cost.
 To decide the operating schedule of the power station, that is, the
sequence in which different generating units should run.
Problem #01
A consumer has the following connected load:
10 Lamps each of 60 W, 2 Heaters each of 1000 W, Maximum demand
1500 W. On the average he uses 8 lamps for 5 hours per day. Each heater
3 hours per day. Find: (a) average load. (b) monthly energy consumption.
(c) load factor.
SOLUTION
actual energy consumed
Average load 
time duration
8  60  5  2  1000  3

24
 350W
Monthly energy consumption  Average Load  30 days /Month
 252 KWh
average load
Load factor 
max imum demand
350

1500
 0.2333
Problem #02
There are 4 consumers of diversity having different load requirements at
different timings.
Consumer #01
Average load = 1 KW
Maximum demand = 5 KW at 8 p.m.
Consumer #02
Maximum demand = 2 KW at 9 p.m.
Demand of 1.6 KW at 8 p.m.
Daily load factor = 0.15
Consumer #03
Maximum demand = 2 KW at 12 noon.
load of 1 KW at 8 p.m. The maximum demand of the
Average load of 500 W. system occurs at 8 pm.
Determine:
Consumer #04
Maximum demand of 10 KW at 5 p.m. 1. The diversity factor
load of 5 KW at 8 p.m. 2. Average load and load factor of
Daily load factor = 0.25. each consumer
3. Average load and load factor of the
combined load.
solution CONSUMER 01
Average load  1 KW
average load 1
load factor    0. 5
max imum demand 5
CONSUMER 02
load factor  0.15
average load  load fa cot or  max imum demand
 0.15  2  0.3 KW  300 W
CONSUMER 03
Average load  500 W
average load 500
load factor    0.25
max imum demand 2000
CONSUMER 04
Load factor  0.25
average load  load fa cot or  max imum demand
 0.25  10  2.5 KW

COMBINED AVERAGE LOAD  1000  300  500  2500  4.3 KW

SUM OF INDIVIDUAL MAX . DEMANDS  5  2  2  10  19 KW
AT 8 pm
Combined max . demand  5  1.6  1  5  12.6 KW
Sum of individual max imum demands 19
Diversity factor    1.507
combined max . demand 12.6
combined average load 4 .3
load factor    0.341
combined max imum demand 12.6