No revenue generated in Merchant Plant Model

Hi Paul,
Another interesting finding using merchant plant model, I have set up a PV-Batt, merchant model, with DC couple battery system which can only charge from the system. I want the system to dispatch automatically based on the energy market prices ($/MWh) to gain revenue. 

Despite of importing values from cambium and setting the electricity price to "use PPA or market prices", my cash flows no revenue through electricity market.

In my understanding, since I have opted for automated look ahead 18 hours dispatch (DC coupled PV-battery system, cannot charge from grid), the battery will charge when solar in ON during PSH and discharge based on the electricity market prices when its high! There should be some revenue shown....how can it be just 0 throughout ? 

Please help and thanks in advance.

Regards.

Hi Soheb,

As we have mentioned in previous discussions, the Battery model does not work well with the Merchant plant financial models. We are working to resolve these issues:

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/391

Until we find a solution to these problems, if you want to model a PV-battery or Standalone Battery system that responds to time series
market prices, we recommend using the Single Owner financial model  with the "TOD factors by time step" option, which will make it possible to dispatch the battery in response to hourly or subhourly price signals without the problem of cleared capacity.

Also, FYI, we are working on a couple of other issues with the Merchant Plant model:

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/846

github.com/NREL/SAM/issues/836

Best regards,
Paul.