Financial Model Suggestions

Hi Scot,

I believe the presentation you saw was about NREL's HOPP model , developed as part of NREL's Hybrid Energy Systems Research .

HOPP uses SAM and other NREL models for the different steps in its optimization process. We have had some discussions about the possibility of implementing some of HOPP's functionality into SAM to help facilitate modeling hybrid power projects, but that work has not been funded (yet).

We did recently add a new combine cases feature described in this video on the SAM YouTube channel as a step toward being able to model hybrid systems in SAM.

SAM does have a basic fuel cell model and can model an electric power generation system that combines a PV array, fuel cell, and optional battery storage. SAM does not have an electrolyzer model.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hello SAM team,

This is Cornelius, a student at Northeastern University and I'm learning to use SAM. I have a school project and I decided to use SAM software for it. Please I need someone's help to run me through the software with a shared screen on zoom.
I'll be happy if anyone has time to help. I have to design and analyze a PV and storage system for some buildings at Northeastern University. I also have to analyze the electricity bills. While waiting for your reply, stay blessed.

Best, Cornelius

Hi Cornelius,

We have posted several videos explaining how to model different kinds of systems in SAM. Please see:

sam.nrel.gov/photovoltaic/pv-videos.html

sam.nrel.gov/battery-storage/battery-videos.html

sam.nrel.gov/financial-models/residential-and-commercial.html

You can also find information about SAM's inputs in the Help system that comes with the software.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hey Paul,
I have two different things that I have noticed would be very useful for SAM, the second of which I think is particularly helpful for those who are on a tariff that includes a demand ratchet. Here's what I got. 

Recently I have been working on using SAM to model a behind the meter BESS project for a public university. The meter that the system is on already has existing solar that reduces a significant amount of demand during the day. When I try to model this in SAM as a PV + Battery project, the system calculates savings from my existing solar system into the projects cash flow. This makes it harder for me to determine the financial feasibility of just installing the battery on my micro-grid. To work around this I am using the generic battery model with a net load profile that includes my facility load minus solar generation at every given interval. I would like see SAM have the same PV + Battery model with the capabilities to have the algorithm ignore potential savings from either solar or battery and just include whichever the operator chooses to include in the financial calculations. This isn't really a big deal as I have a work around that seems to do the trick, but it would be a helpful addition to look into. 

The next thing I would like to see is an update to the billing demand section of the electricity rates tab. The issue I have is with getting SAM to properly model my utility tariff that includes a demand ratchet. The ratchet is set up for my tariff as such: 

Arizona Public Service E-35
On-Peak hours 11:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday
Off-Peak hours All remaining hours
For billing kW purposes:
a. The On-Peak is based on the greater of the following:
 i. The average kW supplied during the 15-minute period of maximum useduring the billing period; or
ii. 80% of the highest On-Peak kW measured during May through October
of the twelve months ending with the current month.

b. Off-Peak is based on the average kW supplied during the 15-minute period ofmaximum use during Off-Peak hours.

My issue is that, in the "billing demand by time-of-use period for demand charges" section, I can only choose whether or not each period is included in the billing demand, and not in the ratchet calculation. Instead, SAM will include any period used for demand billing in the ratchet calculation as well.  This means that if I want to simulate demand charges for off-peak hours, which I do as we get demand charges for all TOU periods, then these off-peak hours can also be used to calculate the ratchet. My tariff will only use on-peak hours in its ratchet calculation, which causes issues as SAM will set the ratchet off-peak if I happen to have a larger demand peak at that time. It would be very useful if there was the ability to decide what TOU periods SAM takes into account for setting the ratchet as well as the feature it already has to pick which periods are included in the billing demand. On top of this it would be helpful if the "billing demand by month" table had a column where I could choose to include or exclude individual months from the ratchet calculation. 

Hi Brendan,

Thank you for these suggestions. We will consider them for a future version of SAM. You can track progress on the SAM GitHub repository here:

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/1140

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/1141

Best regards,
Paul.

Hello Sir, I have a suggestion.

In Wind, Commercial, distributed > in financial parameters, two discount rates are given which are REAL DISCOUNT RATE (RDR) and NOMINAL DISCOUNT RATE (NDR). 

RDR does not incorporate inflation.  Whereas NDR incorporates inflation. 
You can edit (give input) in RDR. but you can not give input for NDR.

So, in every country there is inflation. Right!

SAM uses the NDR for financial analysis. So what is need of showing RDR? a new user like me initially was very confused! So i think there should be NDR for which we can give input and RDR should be removed. Because back end SAM uses NDR, same as HOMER Software. NDR should always be used as there is inflation in every country. RDR option should be removed. 

Regards: 
Engr. Hamza