Power Rating Optimizer
The Solar PV, 'Power Rating Optimizer,' is found when adding your first 'PV System' to a proposal or when editing a PV Array.
Min & Max - Power Rating:
Defaults: When running the 'Power Rating Optimizer' in a proposal with an Energy Use Profile selected, the default power ratings will be a minimum 10% offset system and a maximum 100% offset system - measured in annual kWh offset. Note: If running the optimizer with no Energy Use Profile selected, the power ratings will default to minimum 10kW and maximum 1000kW and only be shown on the 'Annual Generation' chart
The results shown in the optimizer are affected by the values entered in the Physical Orientation section and PVWatts section for a PV System designed using a PVWatts simulation.
Grey Slider: Beneath the optimizer charts, the grey slider allows users to add capacity by clicking the '+' symbol on the right. You can also customize the scale of the chart and drill down on specific Power Rating windows.
Charts Displayed:
The ETB Optimizer simulates 10 different sized systems, which are proportionally spaced, displayed on the x-axis of each chart in DC Power Rating (kW). The PV optimizer outputs six separate interactive charts.
- Energy Savings: displays the energy-only savings or '$/kWh' portion of bill savings only.
- Demand Savings: displays the demand-only savings or '$/kW' portion of bill savings only.
- Electric Bill Savings: displays the total utility bill savings in dollars, which is the 'energy savings’ + ‘demand savings.’
- Blended Savings: displays the blended ($/kWh) savings or ‘value of solar.’
- Annual Generation: displays the 1st year total PV (kWh) generation.
- Exported Generation: displays the 1st year exported PV (kWh) generation and 1st year % of PV (kWh) generation exported to the grid.
Reading/interpreting the charts:
No rate switching: if the user does not define a rate switch in the rate schedule details, then only one line will be displayed on the chart.
Rate switching: if the user defines a rate switch in the rate schedule details, there will be a '$' icon at the top right of the chart, when this is toggled, (2) separate lines will be displayed on each chart depicting projected savings on the current rate tariff and projected savings a new rate tariff
- "Current rate" savings (Solid Dark Blue): the dollar savings the corresponding system would achieve if the system is installed and the customer were to remain on the 'Current Rate.'
- "'New rate' w/ Rate Switch Impact" savings (Solid Green): the dollar savings the system will achieve if the system is installed and the customer were to undergo a switch to the 'New Rate.'
- "'New rate' - w/o Rate Switch Impact" savings (Dashed Green): the would-be savings achieved by the system moving if the customer had already been on the new rate being switched to. The value is equal to "'New rate' w/ Rate Switch Impact" (Solid Green) minus the value of the "Rate switch impact" (Dashed Orange).
- "Rate switch impact" only savings (Dashed Orange): the cost or savings that would result from the customer's rate switch, without the addition of solar or storage and the current level of electricity utilization remaining constant. (Utility Bill (on current rate) - Utility Bill (on new rate)).
- *Note: a negative number represents higher utility bill costs on the 'New Rate,' while a positive number represents lower utility bill costs on the 'New Rate.'
Mouse gestures & actions on the chart:
- Hovering the mouse over any point on the chart to see the given system size's exact value.
- Click, hold, drag & release on the chart to zoom in on a tighter range, which will re-simulate the Mix & Max range on all the charts.
- Click once on any point on the chart to populate that sized system into the ‘Edit PV Array’ inputs above. This applies whether the user selected a ‘Simple’ or ‘Detailed’ array type.