Reference Energy Use

An important element in the Demand Side Initiative Rider (DSIR) is the Customer Reference Load, or CRL. The CRL is a data "picture" of the customer's historical energy use pattern and serves as a starting point against which changes in energy use are measured and billed.

For each customer participating, a CRL is developed using one complete year of energy-consumption data, recorded hourly, under the standard LP-4, LP-5, LP-6, IS-T or IS-P rate schedules. Both the customer and PPL Electric Utilities must agree on the CRL before the customer is accepted on the rate.

The CRL depicts the customer's "load shape" for each weekday of each month or season plus the load shapes for weekends and holidays.

That portion of a customer's energy use represented by the CRL is priced at the customer's standard rate schedule. The DSIR is designed so that there will be no change in the customer's total bill if the customer uses the same amount of electricity as the historic reference (except for the monthly program charge).