Use of own historical data for simulation

Hi,
I am new to SAM and curious to learn more about its capabilities.

What I do have as input data:
I have 5 years of historical data (01/01/2019-31/12/2023) for a specific location in Tarfaya, Morocco in a temporal resolution of 10 minutes.
The data set comprises GHI data, along with Temperature and wind data, as well as Split Irradiance (DHI, BHI, DNI), as shown below.

Loction:LatitudeLongitude27,8716667-12,828056 Available Data:YearMonthDayHourMinuteGHIDHIDNIBHITemperatureWind DirectionWind Speed
What my aim is:
How can I make use of my input data (10 minute resolution over 5 years) for further calculations?
I tried to use this data and add it to the Solar Resource Library to use it in SAM simulations.
Unfortunately, I’ve encountered an issue: despite following the formatting and protocol guidelines outlined for uploading CSV files, I haven’t been able to successfully upload my file.

Is there any advice, whether my aim to use my data as input makes any sense or if there are too many other relevant data missing?
Thank you in advance for your support!

Best regards
Tim

Hi Tim,

Please make sure your file follows the format description in the "SAM CSV Format for Solar" topic in SAM's Help system: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/weather_format_sam_csv_solar.html

If you continue to have trouble, please attach a copy of your file or email it to sam dot support at nrel dot gov, and I'll see what I can do to help.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Tim,

I just saw your post with the attachment here: sam.nrel.gov/forum/forum-general/4887-csv-upload-to-library.html#13772

That file is not in the correct format. Please try reformatting it and let me know if you continue to have trouble.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul,Thank you for pointing that out – you’re absolutely right, my file wasn’t formatted correctly initially. However, I’ve now adjusted it to follow the correct format, but I’m still not getting a proper simulation.I’ve attached a few screenshots of my simulation for context:

• The CSV is recognized and read correctly (I can see the values in "Location and Resource").
• I then select a specific module and inverter type.
• In the System Design section, I adjust only the number of inverters to 58 for a total AC capacity of ~100 MWac.
• All other settings remain at default, and I proceed to run the simulation.

Could the issue be related to the 10-minute intervals in my custom weather data? Or do you see another potential cause?Thanks so much in advance for your help!Best regards,
Tim

 

Hi Tim,

Here are a couple of things I can tell from the screenshots you shared:

The average annual temperature on the Location and Resource page appears to be 293.2 degrees Celsius (if I'm reading that correctly -- it's a bit small and blurry). That suggests the temperature data in the weather file is unrealistic.

The DC/AC ratio (on the System Design page) is 2.18, which means that the array DC capacity is more than double the inverter AC capacity. DC/AC ratios are typically in the 1.2 to 1.5 range. You might try either increasing the number of inverters, or reducing the number of strings in parallel to reduce the DC/AC ratio.

You might also try running a simulation with one of the default weather files in the solar resource library to determine whether the problem is with your inputs or with the weather file.

If you continue to have trouble and would like help troubleshoting, please attach a copy of your .sam file and .csv weather file.

Best regards,
Paul.

 

Hi Paul,Thank you very much for your input.You're absolutely right—although the original data was labeled as degrees Celsius, the magnitude suggests it was actually in Kelvin. I’ve now converted the values to Celsius, made the adjustments to the inverters as you suggested, and everything is working fine now, as far as I can tell for the moment.Thanks again!Best regards,
Tim