Electrical and Production Load Factors

Load factors are an important simplification of electrical energy use data and depend on the ratio of average demand to peak demand. Based on operating hours of a facility they serve as an important benchmarking tool for the industrial sector. The operating hours of small and medium sized manufacturing facilities are analyzed to identify the most common operating hour or shift work patterns. About 75% of manufacturing facilities fall into expected operating hour patterns with operating hours near 40, 80, 120 and 168 hours/week. Two types of load factors, electrical and production are computed for each shift classification within major industry categories in the U.S. The load factor based on monthly billing hours (ELF) increases with operating hours from about 0.4 for a nominal one shift operation, to about 0.7 for around-the-clock operation. On the other hand, the load factor based on production hours (PLF) shows an inverse trend, varying from about 1.4 for one shift operation to 0.7 for around-the-clock operation. When used as a diagnostic tool, if the PLF exceeds unity, then unnecessary energy consumption may be taking place. For plants operating at 40 hours per week, the ELF value was found to greater than the theoretical maximum, while the PLF value was greater than one, suggesting that these facilities may have significant energy usage outside production hours. The data for the PLF however, is more scattered for plants operating less than 80 hours per week, indicating that grouping PLF data based on operating hours may not be a reasonable approach to benchmarking energy use in industries. This analysis uses annual electricity consumption and demand along with operating hour data of manufacturing plants available in the U.S. Department of Energy?s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) database. The annual values are used because more desirable monthly data are not available. Monthly data are preferred as they capture the load profile of the facility more accurately. The data there come from Industrial Assessment Centers which employ university engineering students, faculty and staff to perform energy assessments for small to medium-sized manufacturing plants. The nation-wide IAC program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.