Microcontroller based systems for peak load reduction

The peaks in energy consumption arise when a number of consumers start to run within a relatively short period of time. In the case of large consumers, this can lead to an overload of the electro-energetic system. In order to avoid such scenarios, the consumers have to pay peak load additionally. The share of this cost in overall costs for electricity can be significant, up to 50% for smaller production plants with discontinuous production. For large consumers, peak load costs usually do not exceed 30% of total costs for electricity. In order to reduce the peak load, it is necessary to provide consistent power consumption that is without major short-term peaks. The paper presents several examples of microcontroller based systems for peak load reduction.