Modeling building with multiple meters

Hi There,

’m working on modeling a solar + storage system for a manufacturing facility in Miami. The facility consists of 4 buildings each with multiple meters. I have a year of hourly data for each meter. My questions is how to best set up the simulation in SAM: Should I add up all the hourly meter data into one table of consumption data or is there a way to set up the system so the meter data can be entered individually and SAM combines it to determine the size of solar array and battery.I’d like to create a system that would handle the building consumption 100% and allow the option to divert generated power from one section (denoted by the meter) to another that oversees critical in case of a power outage.

Thank you,
Michael Caballero

Hi Michael,

SAM does not have a way to enter load data for different meters, so I think the best you can do is add the meter data so you have a single combined load. That should give you a reasonable estimate of the size of system and battery you would need assuming that the system can divert power to where it is needed.

Best regards,
Paul.

Thanks Paul. Expanding on this, I assume that to build a system capable of handling a multi-building campus with multiple meters in each I should just aggregate all consumption of all the buildings to a single string of values and input that.

My campus has 4 buildings Is there a way to divide up the system across them in SAM. I see in the system design tab there is an 'electrical configuration' field. Would that be the way to go about it?

Michael

Hi Michael,

SAM's behind-the-meter financial models have a single load input, so it is not possible to model different load profiles without aggregating them into a single profile.

The "Electrical Configuration" section on the Detailed PV model's System Design page is just a grouping of inputs that determine the PV array's rated voltage (modules per string) and power (strings in parallel). Enabling more than one subarray is useful when groups of modules have different orientation, tracking, or shading, but I don't think would be useful for your application.

Best regards,
Paul.