peak loadn.
/ˌpiːk ˈləʊd/, U.S. /ˈpik ˈloʊd/ The greatest load required to be provided, carried, etc.; esp. the maximum power demand on a particular generating system. Also: a period during which such a maximum occurs.
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1899 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 26 Aug. 8/6 If the business houses should all want to illuminate their fronts with electricity, there would be serious difficulty about carrying the ‘peak load’..a term familiar to electricians.
1903 Daily Nevada State Jrnl. 18 Feb. 7/3 The cost of power..is $7 per horsepower per month, based on continuous service and a two-minute peak load.
1950 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. A. 113 344 It would be undesirable to attract any considerable amount of regular traffic from the railways, which are suited to carrying heavy peak loads.
1971 W. H. Nicholls in J. Saunders Mod. Brazil ix. 231 The rice and wheat harvest required a heavy peak-load in labor requirements, which was largely met by temporary seasonal workers.
2000 N.Y. Times 1 July a12/3 Home appliances linked to the Internet..can be programmed to do the greatest amount of work during off-peak periods and to power down during peak loads.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
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1902 N.Y. Times 19 Jan. 28/2 A reservoir Is provided into which any surplus of water that may be flowing above that demanded by the load can be retained until a peak load period is reached.
1911 Times 4 Dec. 16/1 The existing installations have a continuous power of 7,500 h.p. at the switchboard, and with the masonry reservoir they have a peak load capacity of over 11,000 h.p.
1931 E. S. Smith Reducing Seasonal Unemployment vii. 132 Their plant was practically closed down 3 or 4 months out of each year and they had to resort to overtime, double shifts, etc., during the peak-load period.
1996 India Today 30 June 108 (advt.) These gas turbines can be used for both base and peak load power generation as well as mechanical drives.
C2.
peak load pricing n. a pricing system in which customers or passengers using a utility or service at a time of peak load are charged more than those using it off-peak.
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1957 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 71 602 The optimal solution to the peak load pricing problem.
1976 Newsweek (Nexis) 8 Nov. 69 Energy conservation spurred by peak-load pricing could save industry more than enough money to pay for the higher uniform rates.
2001 Airline Financial News (Electronic ed.) 18 June The most relevant aspect of the peak load pricing discussion..is that it shows what the future of reduced capacity holds: increased airline fares.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1899