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Example:
If the load forecast stated that 100 MW of capacity is needed and energy forecast
stated that annual energy is 200,000 MWh, therefore unit is required to operate for
2000 hours per year. The type of unit is considered as a peak load and not as a base
load.
Load Characteristics
Load: A general term referring to the size of electrical power, i.e. W, kW, MW,
GW.
Energy: The amount of energy consumed by the electrical equipment in Wh, the
customer (kWh), the city (MWh), the country (GWh).
Load Variation Curve: the plot of the instantaneous power over a given period of
time. As an example, consider the following daily load variation curve for Riyadh
city:
Classification of loads :
Loads can be classified to the nature of consumption as:
Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Governmental, municipal, agricultural etc.
The typical daily load variation curve for each class can be plotted as :
Residential: depends on the domestic activity of the people, and is shown as:
Industrial: depends on the time of production and considered to be the most stable
load variation curve and can be represented as following curve:
Now, the total shape of load variation curves for all customers categories (classes)
can be represented by the curve given previously as the daily load variation curve
for Riyadh.
For planning purposes, system planner can produce the annual peak load for the
next 15 years, based on past data and future prediction (forecasting). This can be
shown as:
For the above curve, the green area means that the type of generation units required
are Base units (steam, nuclear, hydro). The yellow area means that the type of
generation units required are Mid-range units (combined cycle). The red area
means that the type of generation units required are Peak units (Gas turbine).