Dumped energy below minimum operation

Hello,

The empirical trough model's hourly output variable "Dumped energy below minimum operation" is thermal energy that would have been delivered to the power block but was not because it fell below the power block's minimum load requirement.

For example, for a 100 MW power block with a design cycle thermal input of 294 MWt and a minimum turbine operation of 0.25, the power cycle requires a minimum input thermal energy of 0.25 * 294 MWt = 73.5 MWt. For any hour that the total energy available to drive the power block is less than 73.5 MWt, SAM will report the amount as dumped energy below minimum operation.

Best regards,
Paul.