Customer Load Profiles

Customer load profiles are provided to help the supplier understand typical load profiles for specific classes of customers. This information may be helpful in preparing daily pre-scheduled loads. Actual loads will vary from typical patterns and using this information does not minimize the supplier’s responsibility for energy imbalance and related settlement costs.

Go to GS Primary Customer Class.
Go to GS Secondary Customer Class.
Go to Irrigation Customer Class.
Go to Lighting Customer Class.
Go to Residential Customer Class.
Go to Interval Metered Customer Class.

Rate Code to Customer Class Cross-Reference Lookup

When you request energy usage data, you will also be provided with a rate code for that customer. The rate codes are listed below in the drop-down box. Highlight the rate code for your customer and the appropriate customer class will be displayed.

You will need the customer class to determine the load profile. Also, any GS Secondary or GS Primary served customer that has a demand greater than 500 KW will use the actual interval metered data and not the class load profile.

Select the rate code:

The customer class for this rate code is:

Load Profile File Format and Download Instructions

Each customer load profile is presented in a comma separated value (csv) file format. These are text files with commas separating the columns of data that can be read into any text or spreadsheet program.

Each file represents a separate annual profile for a specific customer segment.

The first column identifies the day as either a specific calendar date or a specific day type. Examples of day type are weekday, weekend, holiday, season, high load, normal load, and low load.
The next 24 columns represent the one-hour intervals of the day. Hour 1 is the hour ending 1:00 a.m., Hour 12 is the hour ending 12:00 p.m. or noon, and Hour 24 is the hour ending 12:00 a.m.

When you click on the link to a csv file, the data will be displayed in your browser. The steps below explain how to save this file to your PC.

From the browser, click <File> then <Save As>.
Select the directory where you want to save the file.
Enter the file name and select the file type.
Click <Save>.

The csv file is now downloaded to the location you specified in the file type you designated.

Losses

Transmission losses and applicable distribution losses must be included when estimating or scheduling the energy needed to serve a customer. Losses vary according to voltage level of service and for each voltage level there is a separate loss multiplier that is applied to all hours in the year. The transmission loss multiplier comes from NorthWestern Energy's currently applicable FERC Open Access Tariff. The increases for the various distribution levels come from our most recent Montana Public Service Commission retail filing. The following are the new values effective November 1, 1998:

Voltage Level	Function Loss	Total Loss Multiplier
Transmission	4.00%	4.00%
Substation	0.63%	4.63%
Primary	0.91%	5.54%
Secondary	2.97%	8.51%

The service levels for the various customer classes are:

Customer Class	Service Level
GS-2 Transmission	Transmission
GS-2 Substation	Substation
GS-1 Primary	Primary
GS-1 Secondary	Secondary
Residential	Secondary
Irrigation	Secondary
Lighting	Secondary

The loads for a customer or group of customers must be increased by the appropriate loss factor when using meter read data, load profiles, and/or interval recording data to estimate customer loads.