Is "send to excel with equations" well implemented in SAM 2017 in case of using moratorium debt?

Hello.

Is "send to excel with equations" well implemented in SAM 2017 in case of using moratorium debt?

If I send to excel the cash-flow using moratorium debt the results are different If I am sending it to excel (WITHOUT equations) works well because you can read in the casflow page how SAM incorporates empty columns to model the moratioum years, but it does not do the same thing if I am using "send to excel WITH equations.

Of course, IRR and NPV are different for the same case.


Please, see the atachments.

Anyway, I have a new suggestion for the SAM finance model: It could be possible to incorporate the possibility to define the first year of generating kilowats-hour, because there are big projects with a construction period of more than one year, but it seems SAM puts always the kilowats-hour after a fix period of construction of only one year.

Hello,

The cash flow send-to-excel-with equations feature does not correctly account for the debt moratorium. We will fix that for an update. In the meantime, you can modify the spreadsheet after you export it to account for the moratorium. Thank you for letting us know about that.

It is not possible to spread the installation costs over a multi-year period. SAM's cash flow model uses "Year 0" to account for all installation costs, and assumes that operating costs start the following year (Year 1) when the system starts generating electricity. We designed the model that way to avoid making it too complicated for preliminary analyses. Can you provide more detail about how you would like to model the construction period?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hello Paul.

I think the approach the SAM team makes is the right one, in the sense of keeping it as simple as possible.

My first suggestion would be to simply incorporate an input field similar to what you have incorporated into the latest version of SAM in the "project term Debt".

I am referring to the entry field "Moratorium" in order to better model bank credit. Just as this input field delays the payment of credit, another input field could be incorporated that delays the necessary years (typically 2 or 3) for starting production, which has a significant impact on the IRR and NPV.

Currently, I have to export the results to excel, enter some columns depending on the years I want to delay revenue, and recalculate the IRR and the NPV.

The second suggestion would be to prorate the investment during the construction years, typically with 2 or 3 years would be sufficient for almost all kinds of projects. This can be further refined, because it admits many improvements, but I do not know if the effort will be worth it, since most renewable energy projects have a construction period of less than a year, so most users of Sam may think maybe it is not worth it.

The projects I work on are hydroelectric (more than a year of construction period) and wind farms (more than a year, because wind farms that we concretely develop are those of complex orography).

As feed in tariffs have been shrinking in Europe, it is increasingly important to study the financing of projects, especially credit coverage. Do you intend to incorporate swaps, collateral or subordinated debt into the financial model? (In Spain we have moved from a feed in tariff system to electrical auctions, so that I am working more as a financial than an engineer.)