ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of methods reported in the literature for generating typical load shapes required for the simulation of energy use and peak cooling loads in commercial buildings. It also includes a survey of available databases of monitored commercial end-use electricity data and a review of classzjication schemes of the commercial building stock. This study was conducted as part of ASHRAE ?P- 1093@ whose objective was to identih and utilize the most appropriate methods for developing diversity factors on relevant monitored sets of lighting and equipment data. The paper also provides a discussion offour methods in the literature that were adapted and combined in RP-1093 to develop a library of diversity factors and schedules for use in building energy and cooling load simulation programs.