For many small and medium size commercial building owners, demand charges can account for 50% or more of your annual electric bill. This visualization is designed to give you an idea of how much demand charges are driving your costs.
The graph on the right shows a comparison of SCE's GS-1 and GS-2 rates as peak demand increases. GS-1 (which is actually limited to demand below 20 kW) does not have demand charges. GS-2 (which applies to users with demand between 20 and 200 kW) has significant demand charges, including one charge that applies all year and a second, even higher charge, that only applies during the summer.
How much your bill is driven by demand charges is a function of a number of variables, most significantly, the difference between your peak demand during the month (which is the basis for all demand charges) and your average demand as a percentage of your peak. To understand how this works, the sliders below the graph allow you to re-configure the simulation to match your situation more closely.
Here is what the controls represent: