Community - Subscriber's upfront payment_Subscriber NPV

Hello, 

How are you guys? Hope everything is doing fine. 

I was studiyng the financial model for Community and just got confused about Subscriber Bill Credits and Subscriber revenue ($/kWh).

To my mind, Subscriber Bill Credits ($/kWh) it would be, the value that subscriber pays for the energy (or rather, for how much is the energy sells to them).

And Subscriber revenue Generation ($/kWh), should be the amount of money the owner of community earn, based of utility rate (namely, kind of profit, Utility local rate - Bill Credits )

But, running some simulations,keepping Subscriber revenue Generation ($/kWh) unchanged, I realized, every time Subscriber Bill Credits ($/kWh) increses the NPV of subscriber get increased.

Could you guys explain how does Subscriber Bill Credits and Subscriber revenue Generation ($/kWh) works? 

Thanks a lot. 

Hi Juliao,

The community solar financial model inputs are described in the "Community Solar" Help topic for the community solar model. A copy of that topic is available on the SAM website here: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/fin_community_solar.html

The subscriber bill credits represent the dollar value of each subscriber class's share of the electricity generated by the system. SAM uses it to calculate the subscriber net present value, which you can use as an indication of the project's economic value to the subscriber class.

Subscription revenue is revenue earned by the community solar project from payments made by subscribers to the project. This revenue may be from up-front payments, annual payments, or payments per unit of power generated by the system. This revenue represents the value of the power generated by the system to the community solar project.

Best regards,
Paul.

Dear Paul,

Thanks a lot. 

But I still don't understande how this Bill Credits works. Forgive for the very basic nature of my question. But I really didn't understand. 

I gonna attach the file for your analysis. 

As far as I understood,   Bill Credits rate would be the dollar value per unit of energy (1kWh) sold by the community owner to the subscriber class. 

On the other hand, Revenue Generations ($/kWh), I assume as the difference between LCOE (dolar per unit of energy produced) and the value of Bill Credit rates. 

This difference should be the owner's profit rate.


For instance,

As the owner of community, I sold the energy to subscriber for the value of Bill Credit Rate. 

As the owner, the cost of energy produced would be de LCOE. 

Thus, my revenue would be: 

Revenue rate =  Bill Credite Rate - LCOE

Does it make sense? 

I would appreciate any help you can provide. 

Regards,

Julião Lemos

PS.: The IRR is extremelly high. Is it wrong? 
 

Hi Juliao,

For SAM's Community Solar model, the system owner earns revenue from subscriber subscriptions. This revenue must cover the cost of installing, operating, and maintaining the system to earn a positive NPV.

The subscriber bill credits are separate: These credits might be paid to the subscribers by the electric utility, or some partner other than the system owner. The subscirber class NPV is the present value of the bill credits for that class.

Best regards,
Paul.

 

The NPV calculation for an annual payment subscription works well. However, the subscriber's upfront payment does not seem to be included in the subscriber's NPV calculation. Is it my fault to do some parameter setting?

 

Hello,

SAM treats the revenue from up-front payments as a reduction in the total installed cost, similar to a cash incentive.

We implemented it this way because we did not have a lot of information about how these up-front payments would be treated in actual projects.

Can you provide details about how up-front payments are treated in your project?

Best regards,
Paul.