Question about HOPP usage in PV + CSP + BESS simulations

Hello. I am interested in using the HOPP framework and its recently added CSP commit for research in techno-economical performance of PV + CSP + BESS hybrid solar plants. My initial intention is to perform a pure energy production simulation over different lifetime (~25 years) scenarios ( own synthetic weather files built via Monte Carlo) , whose energy outputs will be inputs to our own financial framework. My question concerns the inner workings of the available libraries for the energy calculations. I've tested the sample codes and I began reading the functions inside HOPP, and I've understood that the HOPP can use a weather file as input for optimizing operating parameters for each part of the plant, and then calculate the annual hybrid dispatch. Thing is, could I obtain an optimized plant regarding one weather file (for example, a TMY file) and then simulate the hybridized  dispatch of this optimized plant over the other weather files, with fixed operating parameters? Also, could I obtain lifetime hourly parameters for each plant's part (number of cycles for BESS, hourly energy production), as I could in SAM?

Hi Arthur,

I think you would like to optimize the plant configuration (subsystem sizing of components) for a single weather file, then simulate the design through other weather files to see how the plant would perform under different conditions.

If that is correct, then yes, HOPP can do this (with scripting). Simulating the plant over a long time horizon (~25-30 years) can be done but not “out-of-the-box” and would require some scripting to do the following:

1. Optimize the subsystem sizing based on a specific weather data and financial assumptions.
2. Fix the subsystem sizing based on Step 1 and loop through the “lifetime” weather files.
3. Construct a lifetime generation profile and setting up pySAM’s Grid and SingleOwner models to calculate the financial performance of the system.

We're not sure what you mean by “with a fixed operating parameters.” If that means operating cost parameters (e.g., cost to run the CSP cycle), then yes. If it means the operating schedule, the answer is no.
 
For your last, question, the answer is yes. Most of SAM's outputs are accessible through HOPP. However, the battery model within HOPP is a stateful model which only “remembers” the last state of the system; therefore, any metrics that requires a time series of battery state must be calculated after the simulation using the BatteryOutputs class attributes (i.e., current, power, charge, temperature, etc.).

Best regards,
Paul.