Rate education: Electrical demand is like sports fans

Sports stadiums are built to hold thousands of fans for a few hours. The rest of the year, they are largely vacant. However, the seats, restrooms, concession stands and parking spots remain.
In this comparison, the people in the stadium are like the demand or kW.
The electric grid is like a stadium because SLV REC has to build the system to accommodate the maximum amount of electricity needed, even if the customer doesn’t use the maximum capacity all day, every day of the year.
You could compare this sports stadium analogy to a grain drying service. It has to be built to serve a substantial load, but it is only used a few weeks each year. A grain dryer service may have a high demand for three weeks of the year and a demand of zero during the rest of the year.