Your highest 15 minutes are costing you the most.
Ontario commercial electricity bills are dominated by demand charges — billed on a single monthly power spike. ShiftAI models your load profile and identifies exactly where peak shaving delivers the highest ROI.
Not All Electricity Usage Is Created Equal.
How much electricity you used total. Shown on your bill as the energy charge. This is what most people watch.
Your single highest 15-minute power draw of the month. One brief spike — even lasting 15 minutes — sets your demand charge for the entire billing period.
You are charged heavily for your “top speed” — your Peak Demand — even if you only hit it for 15 minutes a month.
Demand charges can represent 40–50% of a commercial electricity bill. Reducing that single spike is the fastest path to commercial energy savings.
Ontario commercial demand charges based on Global Adjustment and distribution tariffs. Percentage varies by utility and rate class.
Anatomy of a Commercial Load Profile
Before we can shave the peak, we need to understand what we're looking at. Here's a typical Ontario manufacturing facility across a single day.
“Every motor startup, compressor cycle, and elevator bank creates a power surge. That surge — lasting minutes — sets your demand charge for the entire month.”
The Trap: Shaving the ‘Plateau’.
Most battery proposals target the entire working-hours load. That's a $1.4 million problem for a $57,600 savings opportunity. The math doesn't work.
A 3 MWh battery system costs ~$1.4M to eliminate the same demand charge a targeted approach solves for $450K. This is the trap competitors sell into.
The Strategy: Shaving the ‘Needle’.
Demand charges are set by your single highest 15-minute spike — not your average load. Target the spike. Leave the plateau alone. Same savings. 90% less battery capacity.
Demand charges consuming 40–50% of the monthly electricity bill.
The Needle Strategy identifies and eliminates the spike. Same savings, 90% less hardware.
The Technical Constraint: C-Rates.
The Needle Strategy doesn't just need storage — it needs power. That's a hardware specification most installers get wrong.
To output 400 kW from a 0.5C battery, you need 800 kWh of capacity. The physics demand it.
✗ InefficientAt 1C, a 400 kWh battery outputs 400 kW — matching the spike requirement exactly. No oversizing needed.
✓ EfficientC-Rate describes how quickly a battery can discharge relative to its capacity.
The Needle Strategy requires hardware designed for POWER, not just STORAGE. This is why commercial-grade 1C systems are non-negotiable.
The Hardware: Renon 61.44 kWh Commercial Series
Industrial-grade outdoor storage, engineered for Canadian winters and commercial interconnection requirements.
The Financial Unlock: The Inverter Rebate.
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program and Save ON Energy rebates are calculated on AC inverter capacity — not on how much battery you install. That distinction changes everything.
Incentive is triggered by the AC inverter capacity, regardless of battery storage size.
Rebate rates and programs are subject to change. ShiftAI models current approved incentive structures only. Verify with your licensed installer and the Ontario Energy Board before financial planning.
Eliminating the CapEx Barrier.
When the incentive revenue exceeds the project cost, the conversation changes from “Can we afford this?” to “Can we afford not to?”
When the rebate covers the hardware, the only question left is timing.
Engineered Solutions vs. ‘Sales Tools’.
Not all commercial battery proposals are equal. The equipment grade, grid connection, and underlying strategy determine whether you get ROI or a very expensive piece of hardware.
| Competitor Bundles | ShiftAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment Grade | Residential-grade (13.5 kWh units) | Industrial Commercial (480V/600V Ready) |
| C-Rate | 0.5C — low power output | 1.0C — high power, right-sized |
| Grid Connection | Often single-phase (incompatible with 600V commercial) | Native 3-phase commercial |
| Battery Sizing | Oversized to compensate for low C-rate | Precisely sized to spike profile |
| Strategy | Fee collection | Demand charge reduction + ROI |
| Modelling | Flat-rate estimate | Hourly load profile simulation |
| ShiftAI Integration | ✗ | ✓ — All assumptions documented |
ShiftAI models the load profile correctly. Competitor estimates typically use flat-rate averages that overstate savings by 20–40%.
The Executive Summary.
Let's engineer your load profile.
ShiftAI builds a demand charge model for your facility — identifying the optimal battery size, C-rate, and rebate pathway to maximize your commercial ROI.