Diversity and Demand factor..
etc
DEMAND FACTOR, DIVERSITY FACTOR AND TRANSFORMER SIZE
CALCULATION
a) Demand factor - the ratio of the load that a piece of equipment actually
draws when it is in operation to the load it could draw (which we call full
load).
For example, an oversized motor - 20 HP - drives a constant 15 HP load
whenever it is on. The motor demand factor is then 15/20 = 75 %.
Demand factor= Maximum demand/ Connected load.
This is generally confused with diversity factor. Demand factors should be
ideally applied to individual loads and diversity factor to a group of loads.
When you talk about ‘diversity’, there is naturally more than one (many, in
real case scenarios) loads involved.
b) Diversity factor - the probability that a particular piece of equipment will
come ON at the time of the facility's peak load.
For example, we might have 10 air conditioning units that are 30 kW each at
a facility.
However, since the units are each thermostatically controlled, we do not
know exactly when each unit turns on.
If the 10 units are substantially bigger than the facility's actual peak A/C
load, then fewer than all ten units will likely come on at once. Say only 8
numbers are turned on at a time.
Hence Total connected load = 10 x 30 = 300 kW
Sum of actual loads running simultaneously at a time = 8 x 30 = 240 kW
Diversity factor =
Sum of individual maximum demands/ Total connected loads
= 240 / 300 = 0.8
Thus, even though there are 10 units, they do not all come ON at the same
time to affect the facility's peak load. Thus we can use the diversity factor to
bring the kW into line with the facility's true peak load.
c) Where to use which factor!
Demand factor can be applied to calculate the size of the sub-main which is
feeding a Sub panel.
If the panel (Say SSB 1) total load is 250 kVA , considering a Demand factor
of 0.8, we can size the feeder cable for 250 x 0.8= 200 kVA, which is equal
to 280 Ampere on 415 V 3 phase supply.
Assuming there are 4 such SSB’s as per the chart below,
PANEL LOAD Demand Factor% Max Demand
SSB 1 250 kVA 80 200
SSB2 200 kVA 80 160
SSB3 150 kVA 75 112.5
SSB4 400 kVA 85 340
Total 812.50 kVA
The Sum of individual maximum demands is 812.5 kVA as given above.
To calculate the Main incoming capacity and Transformer size, we can use
the Diversity factor which will take into account the fact that all the four
SSB’s above won’t attain their individual maximum simultaneously.
Assuming a Diversity factor of 0.7, the overall maximum demand would be
812.5 x 0.7 = 568.75 kVA
Transformer could be sized after considering a loading factor of 80 % and
future requirements of another 20 % extra.
Transformer size= ( 568.75 / 0.8 ) x 1.2 = 853 kVA ( Choose the nearest
available standard size)