Power load management is the practice of managing the demand on a power source by adjusting the amount of power used over time. It’s not just a helpful best practice, it’s a necessary part of keeping your operation running reliably and under budget.
If your operation is working with a fixed amount of bandwidth from your power source, you’ll want to consider a number of power load management strategies to ensure that all of your critical processes are up and running when they need to. The moment your power source can’t meet the power load demand, you risk facing some serious costs from downtime and lost business.
Alternatively, you may also have the option of operating through a utility provider more cost effectively simply by streamlining when and how you’re tapping into their power supply. Innovations like microgrids are an increasingly popular way to manage power load by tapping into the wider grid only when it makes sense for your business.
Whether you’re operating an oil rig through diesel-fueled power generators or your off-the-grid mining operation is quickly depleting the local grid’s available bandwidth at a high cost, here are some practices to consider to cut costs and stay up and running.
Schedule More Creatively
If you have the manpower to run crews in multiple shifts, then you may be able run some non-critical operational tasks during non-peak hours. This spreads the power load out more evenly across the day and helps ensure that you always have sufficient power to run your operation. Of course, this requires the added flexibility of scheduling these tasks at various hours to spread them out over the course of a day. To determine if this is a viable option, perform some cost calculations to see if making extra hires and other changes will pay for themselves over the long run.
Plan Ahead for Increased Power Load Needs
When the temperatures climb every year, it’s time to turn on the air conditioners. When the sun goes down every night, it’s time to turn on the lights. These predictable increases in power load are something you can easily prepare for with increased generators and other sources.
However, there are also going to be unpredictable power demands when something doesn’t go according to plan. When a part of your operation goes down (for example, a platform in your drilling operation), the balance of your resources needs to step up and take on more of the burden. All of these require managing an increased power load, often with little time to prepare. By having reliable standby industrial power generators on hand to fuel this extra need, you’ll help guarantee keeping your operation afloat.
Take Advantage of Price Breaks
If you are fortunate enough to be able to plug into the grid, look for incentives to contain costs by scheduling your main power-eating efforts to take place during off-peak hours. Most utilities maintain their own power load management by enticing clients to spread out utilization with lower prices during off-peak time periods. As mentioned above, trying to schedule these power-consuming activities with greater flexibility can lead to some serious savings and help prevent major outages.
Find Reliable Power With Depco
Avoiding blackouts and outages of any kind – planned or unplanned – is in the best interest of both the energy provider and the consumer. Whether you’re tapping into a third-party grid or supplying all of your own power, there are steps you can take to optimize power load management and cut costs.
Depco excels at powering industries with confidence, through a dedicated approach to curating reliable power systems. Our experts take great pride in providing top-tier industrial generators, engines, marine engines and more to meet your needs. If you need any help finding your next power solution, don’t hesitate to reach out.