Using Load Categories

When performing Load Forecasting, it is often desirable to model specific types of load or generation.

You can either start by Importing Load Categories from another model, or creating them from scratch, as outlined below.

To add a load category, open the model you wish to use it in, and ensure it is in editing mode.

On the 'References' tab, right-click 'Load Categories' and select 'Add Reference'

In our example, we will add an EV Charger.

We can now add many load curves for this type of load, for our example, we will assume that the average user does not alter their charging by season, but does charge differently on weekends VS weekdays.

Select the + button to add a load curve, then specify the Season, Week, and assign the expected amount of load for each hour of the day.  In the example below, we have users charging at night on Weekdays.  

The values are all relative the the amount of EV load which will be assigned in later steps.  If a max demand of 12kW was assigned to a load with the load curve below, we would see 6kW of load in our Load Flow calculations for the 7pm hour, rising to the full 12kW at 11pm.  These loads can be layered on-top of existing AMI System Load data.

Follow the same process to add a Weekend curve

Load Characteristics can be useful for Load Categories which represent motors/generators, or temperature-dependent loads.

The file below can be used with Import References to add PV Generation & EV Charger Categories to your model, which can then be customized using the steps above.