Is your kVA too high? A business guide to fixing it

Running a business means keeping a close eye on costs, whether that’s across offices, production facilities, warehouses or retail sites.

Energy isn’t just another bill; it’s often one of the largest ongoing expenses. Yet hidden within those bills is something many businesses overlook: the kVA limit. Get it wrong, and you could be paying thousands of pounds more than you should each year.

Why kVA matters for businesses

kVA, or kilovolt-amperes, is the measure of the capacity you’ve agreed with your electricity network operator. Think of it as the upper ceiling of demand your site is allowed to draw at any one time.

• If the ceiling is set too high, you’re paying for capacity you never actually use.
• If it’s set too tight, you risk penalties for exceeding the agreed level.

For businesses with multiple sites or meters, keeping track of kVA can be complicated. One meter may be comfortably within its limit, while another is creeping close to the edge. Without visibility, it’s easy to assume everything is fine while quietly overspending.

How to check your maximum demand

The first step to knowing whether your kVA is right is to look at your bills. On each electricity bill, there’s usually a section labelled Maximum Demand. This shows the highest level of demand your site has reached in the billing period.

• Compare this figure to your agreed kVA limit.
• If your maximum demand is consistently far below your limit, you may be paying for capacity you don’t need.
• If it’s brushing close to the limit, you may want to check if one-off events are pushing it up or if your day-to-day load is genuinely too high.

Challenges of managing multiple meters

Many businesses rarely have one neat electricity supply to manage. Instead, you may be dealing with:

• Production equipment with seasonal or batch-driven spikes
• Refrigeration or HVAC systems pulling demand at peak times
• Office or retail spaces with fluctuating usage
• Warehouses or workshops with unpredictable loads

This complexity makes it difficult to keep a clear view across your operations. One site could have plenty of spare capacity while another is at risk of breaching limits. Without a central review, the overall picture stays hidden.

A real example

We recently reviewed the energy setup of a business whose kVA limit had been set far higher than they needed. By analysing their maximum demand across meters and realigning their limits, they were able to reduce costs by £25,476 a year.

This wasn’t about cutting energy use; it was about making sure they weren’t paying for capacity that served no purpose. For any business under cost pressure, savings like this can make a real difference.

Practical tips for businesses

If you’re unsure about whether your kVA is too high or too tight, here are some steps you can take:

1. Check each meter individually
   Don’t rely on one site’s data to represent them all. Look at maximum demand across all supplies.
2. Review seasonal peaks
   Equipment such as air conditioning, refrigeration or production lines can cause sharp spikes. Make sure your agreed limit covers these but doesn’t sit far above them for the rest of the year.
3. Keep an eye on penalties
   If you’ve ever been charged excess capacity fees, it’s a sign your kVA may be too tight.
4. Compare against actual usage
   If your maximum demand is consistently half of your limit, it may be time to reduce the agreed level.
5. Seek an independent review
   Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can reveal mismatches that aren’t obvious from bills alone.

Why this often gets missed

Energy contracts tend to focus on unit rates and standing charges, while capacity is set once and then forgotten. For many businesses, that means you’re still paying based on assumptions made years ago, long before changes in production, staffing levels or site usage.

Could you be overspending?

It’s easy to assume energy costs are fixed, but businesses reviewing their kVA setup often find savings that have been hiding in plain sight.

If you’d like a no-cost review of your kVA limits, we can help you see whether your setup is right or costing you more than it should.

Check my setup