Failed Fresnel Simulation with external climate files

Hi,

I'm using the example file in SAM from Novatec Solar (linear fresnel) and I'm having problems when running a simulation with weather files that I downloaded from the websites available in the Climate Page or with another external file. When I run the simulation with a weather file that is already in SAM it runs ok, but when I try the new files it encounters an error and the simulation is aborted. I don't know if I have to do something else to the weather file, I tried clicking "Copy to Project" and the error continues. The files I try to use are in the format of TMY3 and CSV. The error details are copied below.


I hope you can help me with this because I'm new at SAM. Thanks in advance!

Vanessa Acaron

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SAMSIM MESSAGES

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MSG[0]: SVAL LOOKUP ERROR trnsys.user_trdsrc
MSG[1]: SVAL LOOKUP ERROR trnsys.user_exe
MSG[2]: SVAL LOOKUP ERROR trnsys.user_args
MSG[3]: TrnModel::ReadOutput[ncol=0 nalloc=8760 lnchars=4400] = 0 msec
MSG[4]: TrnModel::ReadOutput[ncol=0 nalloc=12 lnchars=2000] = 0 msec

... DELETED LINES TO MAKE POST MORE READABLE - PG ...

MSG[117]: MISSING OUTPUT system.annual.fuel_usage
MSG[118]: MISSING OUTPUT system.annual.water_usage

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TRNSYS LOG FILE

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TRNSYS - the TRaNsient SYstem Simulation program

The Solar Energy Lab at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA
Le Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment, Sophia Antipolis, France
Transsolar Energietechnik GmBH, Stuttgart, Germany
Thermal Energy System Specialists, Madison Wisconsin, USA

Release 16.xx.xxxx

Simulation log for: "C:/Users/Vane/AppData/Local/SAMEXE/SAMEXE-Vane-INST1-2011.12.2/simdata/Novatec_solar_boiler/BASE/trnsys.linear_fresnel.trd"

*** Notice at time : 0.000000
Generated by Unit : Not applicable or not available
Generated by Type : Not applicable or not available
Message : The TRNSYS Executable (TRNExe.exe) and main DLL (TRNDll.dll) are located in "."

*** Fatal Error at time : 1.000000
Generated by Unit : 3
Generated by Type : 15
Message : Unable to correctly read from the supplied data file - please check the file and re-run the simulation.

*** An error has forced TRNSYS to abort


*** Simulation stopped with errors
Total Notices : 1
Total Warnings : 0
Total Fatal Errors : 1

I tested the linear Fresnel model in the way you describe using SAM 2012.12.2 and was not able to replicate the error.

Could you give me examples of EPW (.epw) and TMY3 (.csv) files that caused simulations to fail?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi,

Attached are the files I tried to use and encounter errors. One is downloaded from rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1991-2005/tmy3/ .

Thank you for sending the weather files.

Both files appear to be in the TMY3 format. If you open the files with a text editor, you will notice many extra commas in the first header row. That suggests that you may have opened the file in Excel and then saved it. Unfortunately, Excel reformats comma-delimited text files when you save them as CSV, adding commas to rows (so that all rows have the same number of columns), reformatting dates and other numbers. These changes render the file unreadable by SAM's weather file reader.

To avoid this issue, do not open TMY3 or EPW files in Excel and save them. If you want to examine the data in one of these file fomrats, either use a text editor to open the file, make a copy to open in Excel, or use SAM's built-in weather data viewer.

If you want to modify the data in a TMY3 file, you can use SAM's TMY3 Creator, which is described in the help system.

Best regards,
Paul.