Modules¶
System Simulation Module Names and Descriptions¶
The following modules are used in the SAM GUI’s technology-financial simulations.
| PySAM Module | SAM Desktop | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Battwatts | Simplified battery storage model | |
| Belpe | Residential, Commercial and Third Party | Electric load calculator for residential buildings |
| Biomass | Biomass combustion | Biomass combustion for electricity generation |
| Cashloan | Residential and Commercial | Financial model for residential and commercial behind-the-meter projects |
| Equpartflip | All Equity Partnership Flip | PPA all equity partnership flip (no debt) financial model |
| Fuelcell | Fuelcell | Fuelcell model |
| GenericSystem | Generic system | Basic power system model using either capacity, capacity factor, and heat rate, or an hourly power generation profile as input |
| Geothermal | Geothermal | Geothermal power model for hydrothermal and EGS systems with flash or binary conversion |
| Grid | Grid | Interconnect and Curtailment limits |
| Hcpv | High concentration PV | Concentrating photovoltaic system with a high concentration photovoltaic module model and separate inverter model |
| HostDeveloper | Third party ownership - host/developer | Third party ownership with PPA financial model from host and developer perspective |
| IphToLcoefcr | LCOH Calculator | Calculate levelized cost of heat using fixed charge rate method for industrial process heat models |
| Lcoefcr | LCOE calculator (FCR method) | Calculate levelized cost of electricity using fixed charge rate method instead of cash flow |
| Levpartflip | Leveraged Partnership Flip | PPA leveraged partnership flip (with debt) financial model |
| LinearFresnelDsgIph | Process heat linear direct steam | Linear Fresnel for industrial process heat applications |
| Merchantplant | Merchant plant | Linear Fresnel for industrial process heat applications |
| MhkWave | Marine hydrokinetic wave | MHK Wave power calculation model using power distribution. |
| Pvsamv1 | Photovoltaic (detailed) | Detailed photovoltaic system model with separate components for module and inverter |
| Pvwattsv7 | Photovoltaic (PVWatts) | PVWatts photovoltaic system model with simple inputs |
| Saleleaseback | PPA sale leaseback (utility) | PPA sale leaseback partnership financial model |
| Singleowner | PPA single owner (utility) | PPA single owner financial model |
| Battery | Detailed battery storage model | |
| Swh | Solar water heating | Solar water heating model for residential and commercial building applications |
| TcsdirectSteam | CSP power tower direct steam | CSP direct steam power tower model for power generation |
| Tcsdish | CSP dish Stirling | CSP dish-Stirling model with parameters for SES and WGA-ADDS systems for power generation |
| TcsgenericSolar | CSP generic model | CSP power system model with solar field characterized using a table of optical efficiency values |
| Tcsiscc | CSP integrated solar combined cycle | CSP molten salt power tower system with a natural gas combined cycle power plant |
| TcslinearFresnel | CSP linear Fresnel direct steam | Linear Fresnel model with steam heat transfer fluid for industrial process heat applications |
| TcsmoltenSalt | CSP power tower molten salt | CSP molten salt power tower for power generation |
| TcsMSLF | CSP linear Fresnel molten salt | CSP linear Fresnel with molten salt heat transfer fluid for power generation |
| TcstroughEmpirical | CSP parabolic trough (empirical) | CSP parabolic trough model based on empirically-derived coefficients and equations for power generation |
| Thermalrate | Fuelcell | Thermal flat rate structure net revenue calculator |
| Thirdpartyownership | Third party ownership - host | Third party ownership with PPA or lease agreement financial model from host perspective |
| TroughPhysical | CSP parabolic trough (physical) | CSP parabolic trough model based on heat transfer and thermodynamic principles for power generation |
| TroughPhysicalProcessHeat | Process heat parabolic trough | Parabolic trough for industrial process heat applications |
| Utilityrate5 | Residential, Commercial, Third Party, Host Developer | Retail electricity bill calculator |
| Windpower | Wind | Wind power system with one or more wind turbines |
Other Modules Names and Descriptions¶
These modules provide helper functions or are older versions of above modules.
| PySAM Module | Description |
|---|---|
| Annualoutput | Annual Output |
| CbConstructionFinancing | Construction financing cost calculations |
| CbEmpiricalHceHeatLoss | Empirical HCE Heat Loss |
| CbMsptSystemCosts | CSP molten salt power tower system costs |
| DsgFluxPreprocess | Calculate receiver max flux and absorber (boiler, etc.) fractions |
| GeothermalCosts | Geothermal monthly and hourly models using general power block code from TRNSYS Type 224 code by M.Wagner, and some GETEM model code. |
| Iec61853interp | Determine single diode model parameters from IEC 61853 solution matrix at a given temperature and irradiance. |
| Iec61853par | Calculate 11-parameter single diode model parameters from IEC-61853 PV module test data. |
| InvCecCg | CEC Inverter Coefficient Generator |
| Ippppa | Utility IPP/Commerical PPA Finance model. |
| Irradproc | Irradiance Processor |
| IsccDesignPoint | Calculates design point inject, extraction, fossil output |
| Layoutarea | Layout Area Calculation |
| MhkCosts | Calculates various cost categories for Marine Energy arrays for different device types. |
| Poacalib | Calibrates beam and diffuse to give POA input |
| Pv6parmod | CEC 6 Parameter PV module model performance calculator. Does not include weather file reading or irradiance processing, or inverter (DC to AC) modeling. |
| PvGetShadeLossMpp | PV get shade loss fraction for strings |
| Pvsandiainv | Sandia PV inverter performance calculator. |
| Pvwattsv11ts | pvwattsv1_1ts- single timestep calculation of PV system performance. |
| Pvwattsv1 | PVWatts V.1 - integrated hourly weather reader and PV system simulator. |
| Pvwattsv1Poa | PVWatts system performance calculator. Does not include weather file reading or irradiance processing - user must supply arrays of precalculated POA irradiance data. |
| Pvwattsv51ts | pvwattsv5_1ts- single timestep calculation of PV system performance. |
| Pvwattsv5 | PVWatts V5 - integrated hourly weather reader and PV system simulator. |
| Sco2AirCooler | Returns air cooler dimensions given fluid and location design points |
| Sco2CspSystem | … |
| Sco2CspUdPcTables | … |
| Sco2DesignCycle | Calls sCO2 auto-design cycle function |
| Sco2DesignPoint | Returns optimized sco2 cycle parameters given inputs |
| Singlediode | Single diode model function. |
| Singlediodeparams | Single diode model parameter calculation. |
| 6parsolve | Solver for CEC/6 parameter PV module coefficients |
| Snowmodel | Estimates the Detrimental Effects due to Snow Fall |
| Solarpilot | SolarPILOT - CSP tower solar field layout tool. |
| TcstroughPhysical | CSP model using the emperical trough TCS types. |
| Timeseq | Time sequence generator |
| TroughPhysicalCspSolver | Physical trough using CSP Solver |
| UiTesCalcs | Calculates values for all calculated values on UI TES page(s) |
| UiUdpcChecks | Calculates the levels and number of paramteric runs for 3 udpc ind variables |
| UserHtfComparison | Evaluates equivalence of two user-defined HTF tables |
| Utilityrate2 | Complex utility rate structure net revenue calculator OpenEI Version 2 |
| Utilityrate3 | Complex utility rate structure net revenue calculator OpenEI Version 3 |
| Utilityrate4 | Complex utility rate structure net revenue calculator OpenEI Version 4 |
| Utilityrate | Complex utility rate structure net revenue calculator |
| Wfcheck | Weather file checker. |
| Wfcsvconv | Converter for TMY2, TMY3, INTL, EPW, SMW weather files to standard CSV format |
| Wfreader | Standard Weather File Format Reader (TMY2, TMY3, EPW, SMW, WFCSV) |
| Windbos | Wind Balance of System cost model |
| Windcsm | WISDEM turbine cost model |
| WindFileReader | SAM Wind Resource File Reader (SRW) |
| WindObos | Wind Offshore Balance of System cost model |