Slightly Inconsistent Behavior between SAM and SSC

I noticed in testing that there's a slight inconsistency between SAM and SSC behavior related to utility rate escalation. SAM applies whatever rate escalation you specify on top of inflation. SSC in the utilityrate module does not. I'm guessing that this is related to the fact that inflation_rate is a cashloan parameter and rate_escalation is a utilityrate parameter. So SAM, which does it all in one go, has access to all that information and synthesizes the two, but the SSC step by step can not. So it may be the case that nothing can really be done to make them behave the same way.

That said, it might be worth noting the difference in the documentation or parameter description somewhere. It might save the next person to come along a little time.

Hello,

Your observation is correct. In the current version of SAM (2014.1.14), the inflation rate is applied to the utility rate outside of the SSC module in an extra layer of code. The next version of SAM will use a re-written structure that eliminates the extra code layer and will minimize these kinds of inconsistencies between SAM and SSC. In the utilityrate SSC module for the next version of SAM, inflation_rate is an input to the module.

Best regards,
Paul.

Thanks for your reply here and in my other question. I'll be on the lookout for the next version as well.