What does the area under the Load Duration Curve represent?

The load curve is obtained by plotting the power station load (in kW) along the Y-axis and the time along the X-axis.

Load curve:

• The curve showing the variation of load(in kW) on the power station concerning time(X-axis) is known as a load curve.
• The area under the load curve gives the number of units generated or energy consumed for the period considered.
• The load variations during a day are recorded half-hourly or hourly and plotted against time on the graph. The curve obtained is known as a daily load curve as it shows the variations of a load during the day.
• The monthly load curve can be obtained from the daily load curves of that month. For this purpose, the average values of power over a month at different times of the day are calculated and then plotted on the graph.
•  The monthly load curve is generally used to fix the rates of energy.
• The yearly load curve is obtained by considering the monthly load curves of that particular year.