the.com/peak demand
the one hour a year every grid begs for mercy, and everyone else pays for it.
means the highest level of electricity (or resource) use recorded in a given period, which utilities must build entire systems to survive.
from from power-grid engineering, where utilities discovered they had to size infrastructure not for average use but for the worst-case moment — a hot afternoon when every ac unit fires at once.
cost driverone peak hour can set a year of pricing
summer spikeoften hits during heat waves, late afternoon
grid sizingplants built for peak, idle most of the year
demand responseutilities pay customers to use less then