Utility Load Research: The Future of Load Research Is Now

Historically, utilities have studied how their customers use electricity through load research, the practice of studying the characteristics of electric loads. The outcomes of load research play a critical role in cost-of-service studies and rate design as well as in many other activities, such as transformer sizing, demand-side management, load settlement, and load forecasting. Despite its existence for nearly a century (as described in the "History" column in this issue of <;i>IEEE Power & Energy Magazine<;/i>), load research is not a widely known subject in the power engineering community. This article describes the current practices and explores the future of load research and expansion of interval load analytics in the utility industry.