Use consistent variable labels and group names for O&M and energy variables by cpaulgilman · Pull Request #753 · NatLabRockies/ssc

cpaulgilman · 2022-02-09T18:10:12Z

Use consistent SSC group names for O&M outputs "Cash Flow Operating Expenses" (output group names do not affect PySAM). Note that Sale Leaseback uses "Sale Leaseback" for most output variables.

Remove redundant cf_sales_energy_value.

Add cf_energy_sales to outputs for all financial models.

Change cash flow energy variable labels to use "Electricity" instead of "Energy" to avoid potential confusion between thermal and electric energy.

Fixed, variable, and capacity variable labels start with "O&M" Fuel and replacement variables do not start with "O&M"

Use consistent labels for all financial models, except where meaning is different such as savings vs revenue for BTM vs FOM, or revenue to project for partnership models.

brtietz

Front of meter configurations look good, O&M section looks good, behind the meter configurations need some more work and discussion. I've flagged the issues with some screenshots for cashloan, host-developer appears to have the same problems. Let me know if you want to meet to discuss these.

brtietz · 2022-02-09T18:47:39Z


-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",      "Energy",                  "kWh",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_value",      "Value of electricity savings",                  "$",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",            "Electricity to grid net",       "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },


These labels don't translate well to cashloan. Here is a PV-Battery residential case with grid charging turned on:

First, note that "net" and "to grid" are the same number, despite a sizeable number of kWh from grid. It's unclear how much of this energy actually makes it to the grid, but the monthly powerflow outputs imply roughly half:

The metrics chart appears to have the correct net number for year one:

Second, the "from grid" label needs to discuss the system somehow, as a sizeable amount of grid power is going to load.

cpaulgilman · 2022-02-09T20:40:35Z

Good point.

For BTM configurations, it probably makes sense to report a single energy value in the cash flow. We could revert to what is in SAM 2021.12.02, which is to show a single value, cf_energy_net. In this PR, that is currently labeled "Net electricity to grid" instead of the previous label "Energy."

In both 2021.12.02 and this PR, annual_energy in the metrics table is different from cf_energy_net, which is defined and calculated both in cmod_annualoutput.cpp here

https://github.com/NREL/ssc/blob/068cd4f83a0c0c8988a6d64797dfde4476bc798f/ssc/cmod_annualoutput.cpp#L192

and in the individual financial model compute modules, such as here for cashloan:

https://github.com/NREL/ssc/blob/068cd4f83a0c0c8988a6d64797dfde4476bc798f/ssc/cmod_cashloan.cpp#L412

(I'm not sure when the annualoutput version is being used.)

Should we use a single definition of cf_energy_net that is consistent with annual_energy?

brtietz · 2022-02-09T21:17:46Z

Displaying one energy number in the cash flow like the release makes sense to me.

As far as what that number is, it looks like all of the front of meter configurations have a line like this:

https://github.com/NREL/ssc/blob/068cd4f83a0c0c8988a6d64797dfde4476bc798f/ssc/cmod_singleowner.cpp#L2942

whereas the BTM configurations use what comes out of common_financial.

https://github.com/NREL/ssc/blob/068cd4f83a0c0c8988a6d64797dfde4476bc798f/ssc/common_financial.cpp#L3238

This means CF_energy_net is identical to CF_energy_sales for ~1700 lines of code in Single Owner. This is due to the way utility purchases were handled in 2020.11.29. Now that we've cleaned it up for 2021.12.02, I'm wondering if it makes sense to make sure net is always just "sum of gen" and the financial models should use sales (gross) or net appropriately. This has implications for CF_energy_curtailed but not much else.

I must me missing something - to me it looks like cmod_annualoutput is abandoned code that's no longer used. If not I'd be curious about how it handles availability losses vs the financial models.

cpaulgilman · 2022-02-09T23:09:31Z

@brtietz My latest commit shows only cf_energy_net in cash flow for BTM configs:

sjanzou

Maybe review the "net" term in storage configurations per the comments?

sjanzou · 2022-02-10T11:00:11Z


-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",      "Energy",                  "kWh",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_value",      "Value of electricity savings",                  "$",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",            "Electricity to grid net",       "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },


Another potential confusing configuration is the stand alone battery / residential, which has monthly outputs

The cash flow for the "Electricity to grid net (kWh)" term, 1814kWh, shows the "Energy to load from battery (kWh)" monthly sum for year 1 (potentially a sign issue compared to no battery?):

brtietz · 2022-02-10T17:39:34Z

-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",      "Energy",                  "kWh",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_value",      "Value of electricity savings",                  "$",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",            "Electricity to grid net",       "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_sales",          "Electricity to grid",           "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },


@cpaulgilman How do you feel about these labels for behind the meter projects:

cf_energy_net: "Electricity net generation"
cf_energy_sales: "Electricity generation"

This avoids the issue @sjanzou points out here: NatLabRockies/SAM#927 (review) where we're putting values that go to load in a variable with a "to grid" variable.

cf_energy_net: "Electricity net generation"
cf_energy_sales: "Electricity generation"

I think those are good labels for BTM.

brtietz · 2022-02-10T17:41:46Z

-	{ SSC_OUTPUT,        SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_value",      "Value of electricity savings",                  "$",            "",                      "Cash Flow",      "*",                     "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length",                "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_net",            "Electricity to grid net",       "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_sales",          "Electricity to grid",           "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },
+    { SSC_OUTPUT,       SSC_ARRAY,      "cf_energy_purchases",      "Electricity from grid",         "kWh", "", "Cash Flow Electricity", "*", "LENGTH_EQUAL=cf_length", "" },


This might need a new label as well - since this does not include electricity from grid to load. "Electricity from grid to system" would be accurate for BTM systems.

"Electricity from grid to system" would be accurate for BTM systems.

Agreed.

…s, respectively. This commit should create no changes in variables with units of $, but some variables with units of energy are now more consistent

sjanzou

With comments and issues referenced, the changes look good to me...

Confirm net means net

mjprilliman and others added 10 commits January 31, 2022 17:02

Removed duplicate battery production OM cost from LCOS outputs

da45b11

O&M variable labels

2212bb4

Revise O&M cash flow variable labels for consistency

de3604f

Fixed, variable, and capacity variable labels start with "O&M" Fuel and replacement variables do not start with "O&M"

Merge branch 'patch' into om_var_labels

a618d7d

remove redundant energy sales value line

0055dc4

remove redundant energy sales values

aff7bc0

Merge branch 'fix_cf_energy_sales' into om_var_labels

a17247f

Clean up cash flow energy labels and group names

75e3bbf

Use consistent labels for all financial models, except where meaning is different such as savings vs revenue for BTM vs FOM, or revenue to project for partnership models.

Fix typo in feedstock expense label

602ee6d

Merge branch 'patch' into om_var_labels

a6538ce

cpaulgilman added this to the 2021.12.02 Patch 1 milestone Feb 9, 2022

cpaulgilman requested review from brtietz and sjanzou February 9, 2022 18:10

cpaulgilman self-assigned this Feb 9, 2022

cpaulgilman mentioned this pull request Feb 9, 2022

Om cost inputs NatLabRockies/SAM#927

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brtietz requested changes Feb 9, 2022

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sjanzou reviewed Feb 10, 2022

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brtietz reviewed Feb 10, 2022

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Brian Mirletz added 2 commits February 10, 2022 14:17

ensure sales and net always mean gross and net in the cash flow model…

d6f4ffb

…s, respectively. This commit should create no changes in variables with units of $, but some variables with units of energy are now more consistent

change the labels for behind the meter configurations

d15d593

brtietz mentioned this pull request Feb 10, 2022

Fix cf energy sales #750

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sjanzou self-requested a review February 11, 2022 09:46

sjanzou approved these changes Feb 11, 2022

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Brian Mirletz added 2 commits February 11, 2022 08:54

Merge pull request #756 from NREL/confirm_net_means_net

464f9f6

Confirm net means net

Merge branch 'patch' of https://github.com/NREL/ssc into om_var_labels

91b3b88

cpaulgilman requested a review from brtietz February 11, 2022 16:38

brtietz approved these changes Feb 11, 2022

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cpaulgilman merged commit 0779446 into patch Feb 11, 2022

cpaulgilman deleted the om_var_labels branch February 11, 2022 17:44

cpaulgilman added the added to release notes label Feb 21, 2022

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Use consistent variable labels and group names for O&M and energy variables#753

Use consistent variable labels and group names for O&M and energy variables#753
cpaulgilman merged 14 commits into
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