How create/import .srw files for the wind simulation?

Hello,

for a scientific thesis I would like to simulate several wind energy plants.I would have some questions about the formatting:

1.) How is it possible to create the .srw files? I have already prepared my data and put them into a .txt format according to the instructions of the SAM Help system. But I cannot use them as .txt files

2.) Is there an alternative way to create .srw files in SAM? My actual source file is available in .cdl ,or csv.

3) I have already looked through several forum entries and here it is usually pointed out to use a spreadsheet software for formatting. Is there an open source alternative to Excel you could recommend?

Thanks for your efforts!

With kind regards

Kim

Hi Kim,

The SRW files are text files that contain comma-separated values (CSV). SAM's Wind Power model requires the .srw file extension, but technically-speaking they are CSV text files.

You can modify or create SRW files in any software you like for editing text CSV files. Wikipedia has an article that lists spreadsheet software at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spreadsheet_software . You can also find reviews of free and open source spreadsheet software online.

Best regards,
Paul.

I'm viewing a downloaded wind data SRW file in Excel. My understanding is that these are the same data files from the NREL WIND Toolkit? The actual data look like this (see below). I am guessing that it's not coincidence that 8,760 rows of data works out to be the same number of data points as hourly data for 365 days would be? Can I assume that the first data point in row 6 is Jan 01 00:00 (12 something AM), the second is Jan 01 01:00 (1 something AM), etc. and the final data point is Dec 31 23:00 (11 something PM)?

Here's where I got the file



Here's what it looks like in Excel

Hi Margaret,

Yes, you can assume that the first row of data in the SRW file is for the hour ending 1 am on Monday, January first.

The time stamps don't really matter for the wind power model itself: It starts the simulation with the first row and ends it with the last row. It does require that the file contain one year's worth of data. For hourly data the file should have 8760 rows of data, but it would also work with 15-minute data if it had 35,040 rows. It would also work if Row 1 started with data for any day of the year, as long as the data is for one year: For example, the data could start (row 1) on May 15, 2018 and end on May 14, 2019 (row 8760 for hourly data).

If you are using the wind power model with a financial model, it may use the time stamps to identify the time for time-of-use calculations or other time-related financial calculations. In that case, the financial model uses the convention I described in my first sentence above.

Best regards,
Paul.