By Todd Loggins, Clinton Utilities Board, Technical Operations Supervisor

We are currently shaving about 3.5 % off of our monthly peak by using Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR). It saves us about $35k a month and that is a big deal, here.

Putting the Pieces Together

Demand charges are brand new to us (starting in April 2011), but we have been anticipating their arrival for several years.

Clinton Utilities Board is, technically, a municipal electric company, but we serve quite a bit of rural territory here in east Tennessee. (Geographically, we have more in common with a co-op.) We have 12 substations, about 30,000 customers and work, strictly, as a distributor for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

About 10 years ago, we put in our first Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA). We installed Survalent's SCADA system in all 12 of our substations over the course of three or four years. Then, seeing the advantages, we took it a bit further—outside the fence—and tied in all of our down-line regulators, in anticipation of future rate changes.

We were keeping the regulated voltages near the upper end of the ANSI Standard (125V), so we did not have to worry about the end-of-line voltages falling below the lower end of the ANSI Standard (114V). And, with no demand charge, we had no tangible incentive to reduce voltages. But, we knew change was coming. (TVA has been talking about reinstituting a monthly demand charge for several years.)

 Read Full CVR Case Study Here!