8760 Hourly Loads Databases, 15-minute Load Data & Other options

In addition to annual energy use, occupant, building, equipment, operating characteristics and other customer information, MAISY Databases include whole building and end-use hourly and 15-minute electric loads for more than 6 million individual US residential and commercial energy use customers.

Electric loads are based on actual metered end-use data. Space heating, air conditioning and ventilation load data are weather adjusted to reflect typical meteorological data (TMY3).

Users can access and evaluate load profiles for individual customer records or for any grouping of customers defined by location, dwelling unit, business type, heating fuel and other customer variables in the MAISY Utility Customer Databases. The large number of customers in the databases permits users to confidently develop information for detailed customer types and market segments based on relevant customer characteristics.

Hourly and 15-minute electric load data are available for any of the following geographic areas:

• ZIP code
• Metropolitan area
• Utility service area
• State
• Region
• Entire US

As an option to processing databases in-house to extract relevant information, Jackson Associates can process individual utility customer records to provide average utility customer dwelling unit, appliance, occupancy and hourly/15-minute loads data for customer segments (e.g., dwelling units by floor space category within a specific state). This processing can also provide summaries of relevant load data such as month day type loads (average 24 hourly loads for weekday, weekend, peak day for each of 12 months).

Customer classes, market segments and individual customers can be defined by any of the customer variables available in the MAISY Utility Customer Databases (see residential and commercial, database variables).

View a summary of all MAISY Energy Use and Hourly Loads Database options and sample applications.

Additional MAISY Hourly load database topics:

• Avoiding "prototype" and average load data aggregation errors
• Advantages of the MAISY 8760 Hourly Loads Databases
  
• Example client applications
  
• Accessing hourly loads data

Advantages of MAISY 8760 Hourly Loads Databases

MAISY Hourly Loads Databases have been developed from information on more than 6 million residential and commercial utility customers to provide a statistically representative sample of customers for each ZIP code, state, metropolitan area, service area and other geographic areas. Each customer record includes detailed customer characteristics including total building energy use for electricity, natural gas and oil along with electric whole building and end-use hourly loads for space heating, air conditioning, ventilation, water heating, appliances, lighting/TV, and other end uses. Hourly loads are available for day-types as well as for full 8,760 hours loads throughought the year. Jackson Associates provides its clients with load data to meet a variety of needs in technology, energy sales, utility and other energy related markets. Clients include energy suppliers, ESCO's, equipment manufacturers, government agencies and other energy-industry organizations.

The unique strength of the MAISY Databases lies in the large number of scientifically-selected customer records which provide information reflecting all customers rather than information for segment averages or just one or a few "typical" customers. For example, a utility might want to assess its current residential rate structure and the extent to which customer diversity within this class creates incentives for solar distributed generation applications. Load research samples used by utilities are not typically large enough to reliably support this quantitative analysis nor do they include end-use electric loads required to conduct distributed generation potential analysis.

Similarly, technology companies typically focus on specific market segments defined by income, dwelling unit size in residential markets and energy use characteristics in commercial markets (e.g., customer whose peak electricity use is 200 and 500kW. )

MAISY 8760 hourly loads and 15-minute loads advantages include the ability to provide:

• Energy use by end use (e.g., electric lighting, air conditioning, etc.) to assess market potential for various smart grid, energy efficiency and demand response programs.
• Evaluations of pricing, profitability, markets sizing, technology market potential, customer profitability and other applications.
• Whole building and end-use hourly loads for individual customer records based on detailed building, operating and equipment characteristics
• Energy use and loads data for any geographic location
• Hourly loads for typical and extreme weather patterns based on historical data for each location
• Additional detailed information on building structure, equipment and operating characteristics for each customer record
• Information that can be merged with existing customer, load research and marketing data

MAISY 8760 hourly loads save time and money by providing immediate information resources at a fraction of the cost required to conduct building and/or end-use metering.

Utility MAISY Client Energy Use and Hourly Loads Database Applications Examples

MAISY Utility Customer Energy Use and Hourly Loads Databases have supported a wide variety of information needs including the following sample applications:

• A large electric utility analyzed hourly and 15-minute load data across six states to assess market potential and other details for a new technology initiative.
• Automobile manufactures have analyzed 8760 whole building residential loads to assess EV grid support opportunities.
• Hourly loads data have been applied for more than a dozen electric utilities to evaluate the business case for smart grid technologies.
• More than a dozen solar, battery, cool storage, wind and other new technology companies have analyzed 8760 whole building residential and commercial loads to support product development, market sizing, marketing and sales strategies.
• Energy service companies across the US and Canada have analyzed energy use by end use (e.g., electric lighting, air conditioning, etc.) to assess the market potential for various energy efficiency and demand response programs and to identify market segments with the greatest potential.
• Retail electricity providers (competitive electricity marketers) have applied hourly loads databases to evaluate customer profitability, to score and target market segments and individual customers.
• Equipment manufacturers have applied hourly loads databases to assist in product design.
• Equipment manufacturers have applied hourly loads databases to evaluate customer profitability, to score and target market segments and individual customers.
• Average hourly loads were provided to a research institute for the 10 NERC regions to conduct analysis of combined heat and power (CHP) energy savings.
• Individual utility customer hourly loads were analyzed along with cost-of-service data to identify the most profitable market segments for a competitive electricity provider.
• Hourly loads were analyzed along with utility rate structures to determine market potential for a new energy storage technology.
• Hourly loads were analyzed to evaluate energy-efficiency potentials for target marketing and sales campaigns.
• Rate structure analysis was undertaken for alternative commercial and residential customer rate designs for a regulated utility.
• Whole building loads were integrated with a load research sample to provide an updated sample of customer loads.
• Detailed hourly loads were provided to support load forecasting models for both regulated and competitive electricity providers.
• Whole building and end-use hourly load profiles were used by an equipment manufacturer to assist in equipment design.
• Hourly loads for selected market segments were provided to a DG retailer to support target marketing.
• Hourly loads were provided to a distribution utility to develop unbundled rate structures.
• Hourly loads have been provided to deregulated electricity providers, ESCO, electric utilities, and companies considering entering the energy retail markets for market sizing and target marketing.
• Hourly load data, including end-use detail, were used to develop market potentials and identify geographic target markets for selected energy service measures for an ESCO.
• Hourly loads databases have been provided to retail electricity providers to develop profitability scoring models.
• Load profiles were provided for electric cooperatives to support rate analysis.
• Hourly load data were used to compute spark spreads for 50 utility service areas based on actual gas and electric tariffs.
• 8,760 hourly loads have been provided for individual building design analysis.
• Hourly loads were used to estimate market potential for power quality products by state.
• Hourly lighting loads were used to evaluate lighting technology profit potentials by state and commercial market segment.

Analysis projects utilize detailed information on individual utility customer hourly loads to answer a variety of client questions. A recent example project analyzed hourly loads for commercial utility customers in all 48 continental states to evaluate cost savings associated with a new load-shifting energy technology. Hourly loads for each utility customer in the database were analyzed to determine electricity bills both with and without an application of the load shifting technology. Results were used to determine market potential associated with the technology and to identify utility, business type and other customer characteristics to identify the most appropriate target segments for marketing these technologies.

See the Other Example Client Applications section for additional examples of utility customer energy use and hourly loads analysis projects completed with MAISY Utility Customer Databases.

Aggregate Hourly Loads Example

Some MAISY Utility Customer Database projects aggregate information on individual utility customers to provide hourly loads reflecting business type, geographic, rate class or other customer segments. For example, a recent project aggregated commercial sector hourly loads for individual NERC regions for a research organization to investigate potential aggregate impacts of policies to encourage combined heat and power (CHP) technology applications in individual commercial facilities. MAISY Utility Customer Databases have also been applied to develop customer class load profiles for utility cost of service studies related to alternative rate designs.

See the Other Example Client Applications

Accessing Hourly Loads Data

Standard MAISY Hourly Loads Databases are provided electronically in CSV or Excel file formats providing easy, familiar access to data evaluation, analysis and export features. Jackson Associates also processes individual customer hourly loads data to provide segment load data to support in-house analysis. An API access can also be provided to automate access and analysis for specific client applications.

MAISY Database Features Summary: