Commodity Balance Period

Units:	-
Mode:	Input Only
Multi-band:	False
Default Value:	0
Validation Rule:	In (0,1,2,3,4,5,6)
Key Property:	No
Description:	Frequency of inventory balance

Commodity Balance Period determines the frequency with which inventory balance constraints are enforced in chronological simulation. This setting can take the following values:

Interval (value=0) (default)

Storage is balanced every interval, where the interval length is set by Horizon Periods per Day.

Hour (value=6)

Storage is balanced at the end of every hour e.g. if intervals are 10-minutes the storage is balanced only at the end of every full hour (6 intervals).

Day (value=1)

Storage is balanced at the end of every day.

Week (value=2)

Storage is balanced at the end of every week.

Month (value=3)

Storage is balanced at the end of every month.

Year (value=4)

Storage is balanced at the end of every year.

Reducing the frequency with which inventory is balanced can improve simulation time. The trade off is that between balance periods the inventory limits are not enforced. For example if you set Balance Period = "Day"(1) the limits will be enforced only at the end of each day. This approximation might be acceptable for long and mid-term modelling if the speed up in simulation time is significant e.g. in LT Plan run in chronological mode. Another application is in sub-hourly modelling where balancing every interval is expensive computationally and not always necessary.