Battery Storage Without Solar Simulation Support

SAM Team:
It looks like a solar system is required to complete a simulation in SAM. It would be nice if it supported straight Battery Charging from grid systems. Tom

Hi Tom,
You are correct that the battery storage model in SAM is only available as part of the detailed photovoltaic model.
However, you can "trick" SAM into modeling a battery-only system using the technique that Nick describes in the Battery Storage webinar  (the video should start at 48:06). The technique involves setting the system losses to 100% and zeroing out all of the costs associated with the PV system on the System Costs page.
Best regards,

Paul.

Hi Paul,
Thank you PERFECT!! I suspected there was already a solution to this application of SAM++
Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the feedback, I agree it would be nice to have a more obvious way to do battery-only analysis. We will explore options for future releases.

Thanks!
Nick

Hi Sam Team,

In the comment above (from ndiorio), you mention that battery-only analysis will be explored in future releases. Is there a timeline for this future release?

Thanks,

Jon

Hi Jon,

The next major release will likely be in January, though I don't know if the battery-only functionality will be added by that time. For the time being, I'd recommend following the method of zeroing out PV production by making the losses 100%, and then also zeroing out the PV module costs. This is then effectively a battery-only analysis.

Thanks,
Nick