ERATES: A Computer Program for Calculating Time-of-Use, Block, and Demand Charges for Electricity Usage (Version 1.2). User's Guide and Reference Manual. 1997 Edition.
ERATES: A Computer Program for Calculating Time-of-Use,
Block, and Demand Charges for Electricity Usage (Version
1.2). User's Guide and Reference Manual. 1997 Edition.
(3651 K)
Petersen, S. R.
NISTIR 5186; 1997 Edition; 49 p. January 1997.
Sponsor:
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
Available from:
National Technical Information Service
Order number: PB97-153480
Keywords:
computer programs; manuals; electricity rates; costs;
time of use; block rate; demand rate
Abstract:
ERATES (Electricity Rates) is a computer program for
calculating monthly and annual electricity costs for a
facility, building, or system under a variety of
electricity rate schedules. Both kWh usage and kW
demand charges can be included in these costs. Most
typically these calculations will be used to support
engineering-economic studies which assess the
cost-effectiveness of energy conservation measures or
measures to shift electricity use from on-peak to
off-peak time periods. With ERATES a user can create
time-of-use kWh price schedules, block-rate kWh price
schedules, and demand-rate schedules and save these
schedules to a disk file. The user can then compute
monthly and annual electricity costs with ERATES, given
hourly or monthly kWh usage and kW demand data for a
facility, building, or system. ERATES is a menu-driven,
interactive program, designed to be run on an IBM-PC or
compatible microcomputer under DOS version 3.0 or
higher. ERATES block-rate kWh price schedules and
demand-rate schedules can be imported by the NIST BLCC
computer program for use in computing the life-cycle
cost of buildings and building systems. ERATES is not
intended for use by utilities in setting up or
administering electric rate schedules.
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899