Load profile
Load profile in the SpeicherCampus context: the most important basis of any storage planning. Technically, the term is usually described as the electricity consumption pattern over time.
What does load profile mean?
The load profile is the electricity consumption pattern over time — for commercial customers in Austria and Germany usually measured by the grid operator as 15-minute averages. It reveals what annual consumption hides: base load, daily pattern, night consumption, the height, duration and frequency of load peaks, and seasonal patterns.
For storage planning it is the single most important data source: the peaks yield the required power, the surplus and charging windows yield the capacity, and the pattern yields the operating strategy.
What matters in practice
- request the load profile from the grid operator (every customer is entitled to it)
- look at a full year at minimum — do not underestimate seasonality
- evaluate it together with PV generation data: when does surplus occur?
- add planned loads (charging points, machines) on top of the profile
Practical example
Two businesses each consume 300,000 kWh per year. One has a flat base load; the other has short 180 kW peaks over an 80 kW base. Same annual energy — completely different storage answers: the first barely needs one, the second benefits massively.
The SpeicherCampus perspective
Without a load profile, SpeicherCampus does not issue sizing recommendations. The project review starts with exactly this file — it replaces gut feeling with facts.