What is peak shaving?

The term peak shaving originally comes from the commercial and industrial sector. There are high energy demands in production at certain times, such as when systems start up in the morning. Peak shaving is about balancing out these load peaks and achieving as even an energy demand as possible throughout the day. On the one hand, this should save costs and on the other hand, relieve the public power grid.

Peak shaving vs. load shifting

Peak shaving is also referred to as peak load shaving: When demand for electricity is very high, attempts are made to reduce it by either turning off individual power consumers or drawing power from another source – for example, from your own solar PV system or a battery.

Load shifting has the same goal as peak shaving at peak load: power consumption that is as even as possible throughout the day. However, no alternative power sources are used in load shifting – instead, it tries to spread the power demand throughout the day. For example, you
can turn on devices in the household with high power demand in the morning when no one is home and power consumption is correspondingly low. Smart energy management in a PV system typically combines peak load shaving and load shifting.

What does peak shaving mean in terms of energy storage?

A battery is ideal for peak shaving because it can easily compensate for peak loads in the buildings or productions electricity demand with self-generated solar energy or electricity from the grid. This saves the cost of the more expensive grid electricity and relieves the grid at the same time.

At times of high electricity production – such as in the afternoon – electricity demand is usually low because people are not at home. The demand for electricity is higher in the evening when you are cooking and the television, dishwasher and other appliances are running. You can compensate for this increased electricity demand with solar energy from your electricity storage.

Just as peak shaving can be used in private homes, the same principle can be applied commercially by using a battery that is charged at night when electricity is cheap and used during the day when production is running and demand is high. The battery is then used either as a primary power source or as a supplement to avoid sky-high electricity bills and power peaks.