Sub-hourly output in Sam 14.1.14

Good day,

I'm wanting to extract sub-hourly output parameters from my model. I have a UL script which I run to deal with different sites. In the SAM UI, I see that one can adjust the TRNSYS Simulation timestep, which as I understand will just interpolate weather inputs between the hourly data provided in my TMY3 files. There is also an option to output hourly data, log files etc from TRNSYS. Taking note of sam.nrel.gov/node/68834 and investigations I have done in the help documentation, the only option I can see to generate sub-hourly output data is to use the SDK and run my model directly at each of the required time steps. Am correct? This would also apply to different technology/module selections, e.g. CSP physical trough, PV, wind etc.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

Hi Paul,
I would recommend using SAM 2015.1.30 because it has better support for subhourly simulations. It displays the subhourly results, and you can access them from LK script (which replaces SamUL in older versions of SAM).
The time step setting in SAM 2014.1.14 does not result in weather inputs being interpolated. It will run a simulation for each time step. For example, if you change the setting to "15 min" it will run a simulation for each 15-minute time step.
As for running a simulation for a single time step in the SDK, that is only possible for the PVWatts model, which has the special pvwattsfunc module for that purpose. The other modules in the SDK are like SAM: They run a set of 8,760 simulations (or more for sub-hourly weather data) to model the system's performance over one year.
See also:
One Minute Solar Data Simulation
Time Step -- Accuracy of the Simulation
PV Simulation with Time Step < 1 Hour
Best regards,

Paul.
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