Load profile

Typical seasonal loads of electric utilities in Eastern New England Division in 1919. United States Geological Survey, 1921. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History from Powering a Generation of Change
Graphs by hour of California's total electric load, the total load less solar and wind power (known as the duck curve) and solar power output. Data is for October 22, 2016, a day when the wind power output was low and steady throughout the day.

In electrical engineering, a load profile is a graph of the variation in the electrical load versus time. A load profile will vary according to customer type (typical examples include residential, commercial and industrial), temperature and holiday seasons. Power producers use this information to plan how much electricity they will need to make available at any given time. Teletraffic engineering uses a similar load curve.