The Forced Outage column is used to specify the percentage of time the resource will be unavailable due to unscheduled outages.

The Forced Outage field reduces the plant capacity by multiplying the plant capacity by the quantity 1 minus the forced outage rate divided by 100. The unit capacity will be derated by the forced outage rate for each dispatch hour.

Example:  For a plant with a capacity of 120 MW and a Forced Outage rate of 10%:

120*(1-10/100) = 108 MW derated capacity. This capacity would be applied to the unit in every hour.

Use the Frequency Duration or Convergent Outage Method option (located in the Resource folder of Simulation Options) to remove a unit from service for a random unscheduled outage.

 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.