Merchant Plant

The Merchant Plant model is similar to the PPA Single Owner model, except that power generated by the system is sold at market prices that can vary on an hourly (or subhourly), daily, or monthly basis over the project life. Revenue can be from energy production, ancillary services and capacity payments, or a combination of the three.

Forecast pricing data to use with SAM's Merchant Plant model is available from NREL's Cambium databases.

Sample Spreadsheets

For links to Excel workbooks that replicate SAM's cash flow calculations, see the Financial Models page.

Merchant Plant Financial Model with Cambium API Integration for Fall 2021

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

NREL Home

NREL Research

Follow NREL

NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.