Seeking help for understanding the concept of prices for thermal energy

Hello,

I would like to request to kindly help me to know, whether, per unit (Kwh) of electricity and per unit of thermal energy available before power block will have same market price. The data base has the rate of per unit electricity. What if, I am supposed to get the PPA, LCOE and net present value for power plant on the basis of available thermal energy before power block? Can I use same data set in both cases?

Second: I am getting negative Net present value for plant. Is my simulation alright or there is some mistake?

I would like to request kindly find the attachment for the SAM file, in which I have put storage and power block raising prices as zero as I am calculating only for energy available before power block. Am I supposed to change some more parameters? Kindly help me with all these issues?

Thanking you

SAM calculates its financial metrics based on the value of the electricity generated by the system. (In the case of the solar water heating model, the metrics are based on the value of electricity saved by the system.) The metrics are not based on the value of thermal energy. However, SAM does report the thermal energy at various points in the system, and you might be able to use that data in your own financial model to calculate the value of the thermal energy. For example, the molten salt power tower model in your file reports the thermal energy to power block in the tables on the Results page under "Single Values" (total annual), "Monthly Data", and "Hourly Data." You could use that data to estimate the value of the thermal energy.
A negative net present value means that given the real discount rate you assumed along with the costs, incentives, and other financial assumptions, the project revenue over its life is less than the initial investment cost. Please see the SAM Help -- Financial Metrics Overview topic in SAM's help system for more on that.
I'm not sure that your technique of setting the storage and power cycle costs to zero is an accurate way to estimate the value of the thermal energy because that ignores  the cost of those components of the system. Instead, you might work with the cash flow that SAM generates, and replace the energy value in the first row with the annual thermal energy to the power cycle. To do that, click Cash Flows on the Results page and then click Send to Excel with Equations. That generates an Excel file with a version of the Utility IPP model that you can manipulate in Excel.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas of how to proceed. You will have to decide how best to model your analysis scenario.
Best regards,

Paul.