Schedule versus value mode?

This is a pretty basic question, but I'm trying to figure out the difference between value and schedule modes? Specifically when looking at the annual electricity bill escalation rate the program says to use a real ratein value mode and a nominal rate in schedule mode. Thanks.

Hello,

Some input variables in SAM accept either a single value (Value mode) or an array of values (Schedule mode). For the electricity rate annual escalation rate ( ) you mention, if we assume that the annual electricity bill savings in Year 1 is $1,000 with the following conditions:

• Inflation rate on the Financial Parameters input page is zero (
  Code:

  inflation_rate = 0
  )
• Degradation rate on the Lifetime input page is zero (
  Code:

  degradation = 0
  )
• Load growth rate on the Electric Load input page is zero (
  Code:

  load_escalation = 0
  )

If you enter a single value of 10%, then SAM would calculate the annual savings as follows:

Year 1 = 1000
Year 2 = 1100
Year 3 = 1210
Year 4 = 1331
etc...

If you enter an array of values in schedule mode of [0,10,10,10] the result would be:

Year 1 = 1000
Year 2 = 1100
Year 3 = 1100
Year 4 = 1100
etc...

The input variables that have Value/Schedule mode options in the SAM user interface are stored as arrays in SSC, which automatically determines how to assign the values based on the array length: For an array with one data element, SSC considers the variable to be in Value mode. If it has more than one value, then it is in Schedule mode.

Best regards,
Paul.