Modelling a BESS vs a Peaker Plant

Hello world!

I am a long time industry person but first time SAM user. I would like to model a generic BESS and compare it to a Peaker Plant in the Southeast United States to show how BESS could be beneficial and offset the need for peakers (saving money and emissions). Does anyone have a good place to start? I tried using some BESS simulations with default and industry standard values and got negative NPVs, so I think I'm doing something wrong. Also, is there any way to simulate a gas turbine? Or is that out of scope for this tool? Thank you.

Metin

Hi Metin,

The videos on the Battery Videos page might be helpful to learn about SAM's battery model features:  sam.nlr.gov/battery-storage/battery-videos.html

SAM does performance, cost and financial modeling, but not emissions modeling.

SAM represents the project's perspective. For a standalone battery application, you can use it to investigate how cost-effective different battery sizes and dispatch options might be given different cost and financial assumptions.

Battery projects have positive NPVs when the value of discharged power is high enough to offset the cost of charging and operating the battery. Because of thermal and electrical losses in the battery system, the value of the power discharged by the has to be greater than the cost of power that charges the battery.

SAM does not have a gas turbine model (yet), but you can use the "custom generation profile" model to represent any kind of power plant.

We're happy to answer questions, so please ask any that come up as you're exploring the model.

Best regards,
Paul.