Information as at 1/08/2010 8:39:01 p.m.
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Current loading and load management measurements for Orion’s network:
| Network load | Shedding | Uncontrolled load | Shedable | Restorable | Temperature |
| 413 MW | 0 % | 409 MW | 56 MW | 0 MW | 14 °C |
Orion normally controls load to keep it just below our network limit (currently 610 MW). We also control load for other reasons, including to avoid localised peaks (eg peaks in CBD), to limit our contribution to the region load on the national transmission grid, or in response to faults or emergencies.
A significant proportion of our costs are driven by the need to meet peak loading demands. To ensure that consumers make appropriate decisions about when and where to use electricity, we signal this cost driver in our delivery charging via the use of peak periods (for general connections) and control periods (for major customer connections). Our regular load management tends to flatten out any peaks, so we calculate “uncontrolled load” (our estimate of the loading levels that would have occurred if we had not controlled load) and use this to trigger our pricing periods. We adjust the on and off trigger points throughout the year to focus on the periods of highest loading without exceeding our target annual duration. The current trigger points and status of pricing periods are:
|
Current uncontrolled |
On (MW) |
Off (MW) |
Group | Status |
Current period duration (min) |
|
|
Major customer control period |
409 MW | 635 | 615 | 1 | Off | 0 |
| 2 | Off | 0 | ||||
|
General connections peak period |
409 MW | 627 | 612 | Off | 0 | |
| Generation period | Off | 0 |
Graphs provide a quick easy way to see what our load is doing at a glance. The graph below shows our load and load management limit, our calculated uncontrolled load (our estimate of the loading levels that would have occurred if we had not controlled load), and the status of our pricing periods for the current day. You can also view graphs from previous days using the date selector below.
Our load management primarily focuses on storage water heating, where supply can be interrupted for a period of time without affecting the availability of hot water. Our control simply delays the heating of water cylinders until the peak load or network constraint has passed. To ensure that customers are not adversely affected by our load management activities, we agree a set of long term service level targets with electricity retailers. We then aim to limit load (and therefore delivery costs and charges) to the maximum extent possible without breaching these agreed service level targets - this is a challenging cost/quality trade-off to achieve, and we actively report on our results.
The following table shows the extent of shedding for residential customers with water heating linked to an ‘economy’ electricity option. Customers with night option or night with an afternoon boost are not affected by this load control. Numbers in the table are in hours and minutes.
| Longest duration of: |
Service level Target |
Today | Yesterday |
| Daily shedding | 7:00 | 0:00 | 0:00 |
| Shedding in any 7 hour period | 4:00 | 0:00 | 0:00 |
| 'Business 2' tariff shedding | 2:00 | 0:00 | 0:00 |
| 'Business 4' tariff shedding | 4:00 | 0:00 | 0:00 |
| Average duration of: |
Service level Target |
Today | Yesterday |
| Daily shedding (excl business tariff) | - | 0:00 | 0:00 |
Orion injects ripple signals into its network to identify its pricing periods (peak periods, control periods and generation periods) which are used to establish charges for delivery and credits for export and generation. The records of these pricing periods, as listed in the linked spreadsheets, are verified at the end of each season.
Orion also provides email and text messages to notify pricing periods and a range of other information which is displayed on the dashboard web page. These additional messages and information are provided to assist customers and retailers, but their accuracy and availability is not guaranteed. In our experience, email and text messages are occasionally delayed or lost and, from time to time, the information on this web page may not be available or may be incorrect. We do not accept liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage that may be suffered as a result of using this additional information.
Please email us if you find any errors on this page or have any comments or suggestions for improvements.