Financials glossary
Details about the Financials section of the GridLauncher
The energy generation tab
Battery storage is required with solar PV and wind turbine as primary generation to provide electricity at night and times of low wind.
In addition, a backup generation is necessary to also maintain reliable operations and in case of emergency.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a technology that concurrently produces electricity or mechanical power and useful thermal energy (heating and/or cooling) from a single source of energy.
Estimating the energy generation size
Consumers load profile
A common, basic concept related to electricity is the amount of kWh consumed for a period which is the amount of electricity a consumer needs to run their house, business, etc....
Another fundamental aspect is the maximum amount of electricity a consumer needs which is generally considered when all appliances are turned on at the same time, also known as the peak load in kW which is the largest amount of power demanded by a consumer to turn on all of their appliances, devices, and sometimes machinery, at once.
To make it easy for all users, the GridLauncher proposes predefined categories of consumers (households, businesses, manufacturers and the anchor company) enabling anchors to define who their consumers are and how many of them are to be included in the consumption profile of their community microgrid project. A mapping interface is included to help visualize these potential consumers.
Generation capacity
To meet the electricity needs of the consumers at all time in the day and night, the energy generation capacity needs to be sized up and complex calculations need to be computed to handle normal operations as well as emergency situations.
Energy professionals run the microgrid profile through their own model to output the best ratio between generation capacity and cost, while providing the adequate technologies and combinations to ensure that the electricity generated meets the needs at all time.
In some cases, backup generation might be operated in support of the primary generation, optimizing cost and reliability. In other cases, it might be necessary to account for a cushion of generation capacity (10-20%+).
Categories of cost items
OPEX (Operational expenditures, i.e. annual cost to operate the microgrid) (USD)
This category estimates all operational cost items annually.
Included items are DexGrid software, operation & maintenance (O&M), project insurance, standalone distribution lease, fuel cost per kWh.
TOTAL ANNUAL LOAN REPAYMENT (debt service) (USD)
This category covers the annual cost related to the financing of the Total Cost, including principal and interest. This annual cost goes to zero at the term of the loan.
AVERAGE ANNUAL PROJECT REVENUE (USD)
This item is calculated as retail rate (Tariff) per kWh * total annual consumption (kWh).
ITC DISCOUNT, IF AVAILABLE (USD)
The solar Investment Tax Credit is a federal tax credit for those who purchase solar energy systems for residential, commercial or utility scale properties. The credit, only available to state-based equipment ownership, is applied to the owner's federal income tax return debt and is equal to a percentage of the cost of eligible equipment.
The ITC discount is assumed at 30%.
REC REVENUE, IF AVAILABLE (USD)
This is an annual revenue available to producers of clean energy. The most common forms of renewables are solar and wind but also hydrogen and other forms of biogas fuels.
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