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Commercial Demand-Charge Calculator: Your Real All-In ¢/kWh by Load Factor

The headline ¢/kWh on a commercial power contract is only half the story. Above about 50 kW, almost every utility bills a second charge — the demand charge, in dollars per kilowatt of your monthly peak — and it doesn’t care how many hours you actually run. That single fact makes your real, all-in cost per kilowatt-hour depend on load factor: the fraction of the month you spend at peak. This calculator collapses the two-part tariff into one honest number and exposes the trap that catches curtailable miners — cutting your run-hours doesn’t cut the demand charge, it concentrates it.

Quick answer

A commercial power bill has two parts, and the second one quietly decides your real cost. The energy charge (¢/kWh) scales with how much you use; the demand charge ($/kW) is billed on your highest peak of the month no matter how many hours you actually run at it. That means your all-in effective rate depends entirely on load factor — the fraction of the month you run at peak. A Bitcoin miner running flat-out 24/7 (≈95% load factor) spreads a fixed demand charge across the maximum possible kWh, so it barely moves the ¢/kWh. The same miner curtailed to 60% pays the identical demand charge over a third fewer kWh, so its effective rate jumps. This calculator converts any two-part tariff into one honest all-in ¢/kWh and shows exactly how much load factor is costing you.

The counter-intuitive truth of demand charges: curtailment has a hidden price. Cutting your run-hours does not cut the demand charge — it concentrates it over fewer kWh, so your effective ¢/kWh rises even as your bill falls. For an interruptible-rate miner this is the number to model before you agree to curtail.

Method. A month is taken as 730 hours. Monthly energy = peak kW × 730 × load factor. Energy cost = energy × the ¢/kWh charge; demand cost = peak kW × the $/kW demand charge (billed on peak regardless of hours). The all-in effective rate = (energy cost + demand cost) ÷ kWh, which algebraically is energy ¢/kWh + demand $/kW ÷ (7.30 × load-factor) — so the demand adder is inversely proportional to load factor. Presets use D-Central's verified Hydro-Québec rate canon (marginal energy tier shown; real bills also apply tiered/authorized-consumption rules — Rate CB charges 18.767 ¢/kWh for any consumption other than the authorized block, and mining is barred from Rate L). For BC Hydro, Manitoba Hydro or any US utility, pick Custom and enter that tariff's two numbers. This is a planning estimate, not a bill — power factor penalties, ratchet clauses, seasonal riders and taxes are not modelled. Related: cost to mine 1 BTC and the power cost calculator.

Why curtailment has a hidden price

Curtailment is usually sold as a cost-saver, and for the energy portion of your bill it is — fewer kilowatt-hours, less money. But the demand charge is billed on the single highest kilowatt reading of the month, so it stays almost exactly the same whether you ran flat-out or idled half the time. Spread that fixed charge across fewer kilowatt-hours and your effective rate climbs. Run the numbers above and you’ll see a 500 kW site on a typical demand-heavy tariff pay meaningfully more per kWh at 60% load factor than at 95%, even though its total bill is lower. For a miner weighing an interruptible or demand-response rate, this is the calculation to do before signing: the interruptible discount has to beat the effective-rate penalty that curtailment inflicts, or you’re paying to be turned off.

The Quebec angle

The presets use D-Central’s verified Hydro-Québec rate canon, and they tell a pointed story. Bitcoin mining in Quebec is barred from Rate L — the famous 3.821 ¢/kWh industrial rate — and steered onto Rate CB, whose demand charge and unauthorized-consumption penalty (18.767 ¢/kWh for anything outside your authorized block) push the all-in cost far above the sticker energy price. Modelling the demand charge honestly is how you see the true competitiveness of a Quebec mining load, which is why we treat the province’s rate structure as a question of digital sovereignty, not just a line item. The demand-charge mechanics are universal, though — switch the preset to Custom and the same math works for BC Hydro’s Large General Service, Manitoba Hydro, or any US utility’s two-part tariff.

Feed the all-in rate this produces into the cost-to-mine-1-BTC model or the power cost calculator for a full profitability picture, and if you’re planning a hashcenter’s electrical service, size the transformer and breakers with the hashcenter power planner. The rule of thumb worth remembering: on a demand-charge tariff, uptime is a discount.

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Last reviewed July 18, 2026.