The optional Reliable Capacity column, when populated, takes the place of the following standard calculation:

[Capacity]*[Capacity Monthly Shape]*[Peak Credit]

This column offers the convenience of not having to worry about capacity that changes over time especially when trying to match up the Peak Credit with capacity to get the desired peak capacity counted towards the reserve margin.  

Essentially, everywhere that the formula above is used, Aurora will look to see if the Reliable Capacity is populated for that time period, and if so, it will use the Reliable Capacity value instead.  This includes the calculation of the reserve margin, the capacity revenue, and the maintenance scheduling logic.  

Here are a few things to note:

[Capacity]*[Capacity Monthly Shape]*[Hourly Shaping Factor]*[1 – Forced Outage/100]*[1 – Maintenance Outage/100]*[Peak Credit]

Since the Reliable Capacity input is meant to replace [Capacity]*[Capacity Monthly Shape]*[Peak Credit], when it is specified for a DSM resource the contribution to the reserve margin becomes:

[Reliable Capacity]* [Hourly Shaping Factor]*[1 – Forced Outage/100]*[1 – Maintenance Outage/100]

 

• When the Reliable Capacity is used, Aurora reports a Peak_Credit in the output equal to [Reliable Capacity]/[Total Capacity]; in other words, it reports the implied peak credit instead of the actual input peak credit.  For example, if the input capacity was 100 MW and the Reliable Capacity was 95 MW, then the reported peak credit would be 0.95, even if the Peak Credit input column was specified as something different.

• This column is subject to the Input capacity in MW values switch in the same manner as the other capacity columns.

• While the column is fully compatible with time series entries, generally the value will only be needed for the peak hour.

• This column can be used for the DSM resources, but the accounting is a little different.  The contribution to the reserve margin for DSM resources is equal to the output times the peak credit.  More specifically, defined by the following formula:

 

 NOTE: This column is not used if the record references a Base Resource ID.

 NOTE: If the FUEL reference is specified for this variable the value in the Fuel Table will be applied.

 NOTE: Inputs can be specified for any time period (annual, monthly, weekly, hourly or sub-hourly). For information on how to specify a time series for a variable, see Entering a Time Series.