Plant Utilities worked example

Utility Peak Burden at 11% meter interval and restart allowance: a worked example

Suppose meter interval and restart allowance falls to 11%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Estimate the time burden tied to a peak utility demand event, including restart, metering interval, and reduction planning allowance.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Peak utility demand minutes: 180 demand-min (held at the documented default)
  • Demand reduction rate: 1 demand-min / min (held at the documented default)
  • Meter interval and restart allowance: 11 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 15)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base utility peak burden time = peak utility demand minutes รท demand reduction rate.
  • Required utility peak burden time works out to 200 min at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base utility peak burden time works out to 180 min at these inputs.
  • Allowance applied works out to 11 % at these inputs.
  • Utility coverage rate works out to 1 demand-min / min at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where meter interval and restart allowance sits at 15% and the headline result is 207 min, this scenario comes in 3.48% below the baseline at 200 min.
  • It divides the accumulated peak demand minutes by the demand reduction (shed) rate to get base clearing time, then adds a meter-interval and restart allowance. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Required utility peak burden time: 200 min (headline result)
  • Base utility peak burden time: 180 min
  • Allowance applied: 11 %
  • Utility coverage rate: 1 demand-min / min

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Utility Peak Burden calculator, set meter interval and restart allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.