The demand charge enables OCEC to recover the costs of maintaining the distribution system.
A Member who uses a high demand requires more services from OCEC, including additional capacity, which means a higher expense for lines, transformers, substation equipment, etc. OCEC uses the demand reading to determine the maximum energy (or maximum capacity) required by our Members.
This information is used to develop a system that is able to meet the Member’s highest peak demand. Members may not be using the OCEC system at maximum capacity all the time. However, OCEC is still required to maintain the system so that it is ready to provide service to Members at maximum capacity, at any time of the day.