Software Guide
Table of contents
Table of contents
VERSION: 1.5.9
Introduction
Getting Started
Making an Account
Projects
Creating a project
The project view
Deleting a project
Copying a project
Scenarios
Navigating Scenarios
Scenario Details
Creating A Scenario
Editing Scenarios
Finding Scenarios
Value Maps
Uploading Value Maps
Formatting your .csv
Uploading
Generating Value Maps
Industrial Demand Value Maps
Domestic Load Profiles
Schedule Value Maps
Thermal Demand Value Maps
Profit and Loss Value Maps
Demand
Electrical Demand
Creating an Electrical Demand
Heat Demand
Event Conditions
Creating a Condition
Modules
What is a Module
Priority
Solar Module
Installation
Typical Profit & loss entries
Wind Module
Installation
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Gas Engine Module
Installation
Typical Profit & Loss entries
Generator Module
Installation
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Battery Module
Installation
Typical Profit & loss entries
Heat Source Module
Installation
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Hot Well Module
Installation
Operational Times
Maintenance
Financial Settings
General Settings
Loans
Assets
Profit and Loss Entries
Creating an Entry - Basic
Advanced Features
Value Maps
Filter entry to Installation
Schedule
Statistics
Creating an Aggregation
Levelised Costs
What are Levelised Costs?
Creating a Levelised Cost
Operation Criteria
Creating a Criterion
Detail View
Reports
Financial Reports
Carbon Reports
Levelised Cost
Downtime
Visualisations
Dashboards
Charts
Chart Series
Visualisations Power graphs
Visualisations Financial graphs
Headroom Study
Creating a Headroom Study
Headroom Metrics
Sensitivity Studies
Creating a Study
VERSION: 1.5.9
Introduction
Deimos uses half hourly energy usage data and forecasted usage to predict what technologies would do in each situation.
Technologies are selected from our list of components in each module and you can see from a half hourly basis, the predicted production, fuel usage and interactions between them of heat and electricity.
This is accurate enough for feasibility studies to determine whether the technology is correct for your system, predictions are based on average weather and technology working without failures. No model is perfect so although we give as accurate a representation as possible, there will be some inaccuracies.
Use the chapters at the top of the page to select the area you need help with or scroll through the list.
Getting Started
Making an Account
Login with the username you've chosen and password, use remember me to avoid repeated logins and needing the authenticator at all times.
Use your chosen application, Google Authenticator, Microsoft, 1Password, Lastpass etc. and enter the current code to login.
On the front page you can access:
- Projects section where all projects your account can access are stored.
- User settings where you can change the name on the account or change password if required.
- Changelog to view what's new in Deimos and the path development has taken.
- Your 3 most recent projects opened for quicker access to your active work.
The banner links to:
- Home to take you back to this page
- Projects section for quick access at all times.
- Admin might be accessible - if you have user groups and clients to manage in your account
- Parts will not be accessible - this is where we can add Panels, turbines and equipment to the system on request.
Projects
A project is a collection of individual scenarios. Typically, a project represents a single building or a site where all buildings use the same energy meter. Having a single power meter is important as, when you come to set up a scenario, all the energy usages are lumped together into the same energy pool. If you need to input different energy meter readings for different parts of your site, you should use a different project for each part.
Creating a project
To create a project, navigate to the projects page from the navigation bar:
Once on the projects page, click the "Create new project" button to create your first project.
In the creation form, fill out the name, latitude and longitude of your building and click "Create project"
The project view
Inside a project, you can access multiple tabs to edit the data inside a scenario. These tabs are pictured below.
The tabs highlighted in yellow require your licence to have these features enabled.
A description of each tab can be found below:
- Details - Edit the description, location, currency and grid frequency of the project
- Scenarios - Create and access the scenarios within this project
- Value Maps - Manage uploaded and generated value maps accessible to scenarios in this project
- Reports - Run reports on scenarios in this project, including financial and carbon reports
- Detail View (Requires Licence) - View half-hourly data of modules within a scenario
- Visualisation Dashboards - Create dashboards for your scenario to display charts visualising data
- External Users (Requires Licence) - Invite third-party users such as consultants to read or edit the project
Deleting a project
You can delete a project either by hovering over the project in the project list, and clicking the bin icon:
Or by clicking "Delete project" in the project "Details" tab:
Copying a project
Sometimes, you may want to copy a project to reuse the value maps, scenarios or dashboards within it. To do this, navigate to the project's "Details" tab and click "Copy project":
Scenarios
Scenarios are a representation of your site with a given power strategy, create compare and contrast multiple scenarios to model the financial implications of different power strategies.
Navigating Scenarios
Scenarios are found in the Scenarios tab in the project navigation ribbon.
Scenario Details
Model Start Year
The calendar year the simulation should begin
Model Settings
General information
Enabled Modules
Modules can be added & removed at any point, and the modules content i.e. Installations & https://www.notion.so/joeashton/Modules/Profit & Loss Entries.md will be preserved.
Model Length
The number of whole years the scenario should simulate including the start year.
Name
A label for the Scenario
Export Capacity
The maximum electricity export from the site to grid in kW
Report Settings
Electrical Settings
Incomer Sizing
The maximum electricity import from grid to site in kW
Grid Frequency
Either 50Hz or 60 Hz.
Report Granularity
The default report format; Yearly displays yearly totals for the duration of the scenario followed by scenario totals, or Monthly displays monthly totals for a given year followed by the yearly total.
Creating A Scenario
Inside a Project a new scenario can be created with the "Create scenario" button, that brings up the form below.
Upon creating a Scenario, the following details need to be added:
Name
A label for the Scenario
Model Length
The number of whole years the scenario should simulate including the start year
Model Start Year
The calendar year the simulation should begin
Grid Frequency
Either 50Hz or 60 Hz.
Add Default Profit and Loss entries on Creation
If this toggle is enabled all the selected modules will have pre filled profit and loss entries on creation.
Enabled Modules
Modules can be added & removed at any point, and the modules content i.e. Installations & https://www.notion.so/joeashton/Modules/Profit & Loss Entries.md will be preserved.
These details can be changed at any point in the Details page
Editing Scenarios
The Scenario Details page is found withing your Scenario at the top of the left hand navigation pane.
Finding Scenarios
The scenarios page has all of the available scenarios within the project listed. From here you can select the scenario to edit and if there are lots of scenarios, the search function filters scenarios to prevent issues with too many scenarios.
This view also allows for copying and deleting of scenarios. Copying a scenario has the same function as a sensitivity study without changing any settings.
Value Maps
Value maps are used to define a year long series of half hourly values. This can be used for 3 discrete purposes.
- Electrical loads to define the energy required in kWh by the site that technologies should reach
- Thermal loads to define the heat used in kWh - this could be in the form of Gas used
- Profit and Loss Value maps define a cost or multiplier for a report. This could be price of fuel per day changing throughout the project.
These can be uploaded as 48 x 365 .csv files or generated in Deimos to give users as much flexibility as possible.
Uploading Value Maps
Formatting your .csv
Value maps should roughly conform with the following templates:
Quarter Hourly Template.csv
210KB, Uploaded 6 months ago
Half Hourly Template.csv
107KB, Uploaded 6 months ago
Hourly Template.csv
56KB, Uploaded 6 months ago
Daily Template.csv
6KB, Uploaded 6 months ago
Half Hourly is the most commonly used template however any index that is a factor of 48 or is divisible by 48 can be used simply by changing the number of columns in the templates above to fit the number of data points you have for each day.
Dates in the CSV files must be formatted as one of the following:
- yyyy-MM-dd
- dd/MM/yyyy
- MM/dd/yyyy
Typically in accordance with the ISO format YYYY-MM-DD such as 2024-01-04 for the 4th of January 2024.
Value maps must be 365 days long with no repeated dates but may may start and end on any date.
Uploading
Within your project navigate to the value maps section and select "Add value map" in the top right hand corner and when prompted select "Upload"
Fill in the following modal:
For type select one of:
Electricity Demand
These only appear as load profiles for Electrical Demand
Heat Usage
These only appear as load profiles for Heat Demand
Upload the .csv value map either by dragging and dropping or through the "click to upload" modal.
Units for electricity and gas should be in kWh - some readers work by measuring kW at a point in time, if this is the case for your data set toggle "convert to kWh" to true.
Select the appropriate date format for your value map.
If your data is in the European format where commas "," are used to separate whole and decimal place unlike the more common full stop "." change this setting.
Generating Value Maps
Industrial Demand Value Maps
Generate Electrical & Heat profiles by defining the peak and base loads, this can be setup to define a daily load pattern on the site.
Domestic Load Profiles
Domestic Load Profiles can be generated from Typical Domestic Consumer Values. This gives an average load of a house based on either Low-Medium-High typical settings or annual usage data.
Electrical demand is simple, heat demand creates an electrical demand based on COP of the heat pump.
This load profile generator also creates profiles for charging EV's. This is specified as an average definition for household vehicles with charging profiles for charging every evening, only in weekdays and only on weekends.
Schedule Value Maps
To add a value map in blocks of demand or a value for profit and losses per week, the scheduling tool can be used. This can be used for discrete operation times in conditional operation or pricing models for electricity hourly costs.
Select the value map type:
Electricity Demand
These only appear as load profiles for Electrical Demand
Heat Usage
These only appear as load profiles for Heat Demand
Then drag and drop sections on the scheduler to block out different values at different times.
Thermal Demand Value Maps
Profit and Loss Value Maps
Value maps can be used to control functions using Operational Criteria or apply variable pricing over a year's forecast in advanced 
Profit and Loss .
Profit and Loss .To use a dataset for a profit & loss value rather than a static value:
.1Upload your value map
.aFormat the data set as value map as per
.bNavigate to the "value maps" tab;
.cSelect "Add value map"
.dSelect "Upload"
.eSelect "Type" as "Profit & loss"
.fUpload your CSV file from step 1.1
.gSelect appropriate date format
.hSelect "Upload"
.2Add your value map in the advanced profit & loss section
.aNavigate to your module.
.bSelect your profit & loss entry or select "Add entry" to create a new one
.cUnder "Complexity Level Selection" select "Advanced"
.dUnder "Use Value Map" select your value map from step 1
.eUnder "Value Information, Unit" select the unit by which your values will be multiplied
.fUnder "Value Information, Default Value" select a value for the system to default to whenever the value map is not available
.gSelect "Edit Profit & Loss Entry" at the bottom right to save your changes
Demand
Electrical Demand
Electrical demand is the electrical load of your project. You can add as many profiles as you like and they will appear on the electrical demand page once created as shown below.
In this image we can see multiple load profile cards with their names, the years they are active, and the name of the value map they take their data from. The load profiles here are a mix of uploaded CSV files and generated profiles with their names or creation dates shown in the bottom right of the card.
By default if there is more than one profile active they are added together so in this cased in 2026 the only profile that is no longer active is "Air Compressor for Pumps", the other three will be added together to represent the site load.
This behavior is easier to see in gantt view, which can be toggled by clicking on the gantt icon.
Creating an Electrical Demand
To create a new demand, on the "Add New Profile" on either the electrical or heat demand pages. The format of the forms are the same, however the value maps available to each type will correspond to the type selected when the map was created.
Start and end year refer to which year of the project the map begins and ends, the corresponding calendar years are displayed below the entry boxes.
Value maps may also have a percentage annual change, this may be either up or down to correspond with the changing needs of the site. This behaviour is compounding, so the same percentage uplift or drawdown will be applied every year the demand entry is active for.
Heat Demand
Heat demand operates slightly differently than electrical demand. If you are a basic tier user you may use a constant heat, standard and advanced users may use either a single value map or the demand profile system in the same way as electrical profiles. If you set these simpler options and then set a demand profile, the options will be retained but ignored by the calculation in favour of the profiles.
Event Conditions
Event conditions are additional value maps that only appear when a certain condition is met. They can be set for either heat or electrical demand and can be accessed from their respective index pages. Source types can vary and the system is quite flexible and can be triggered from value maps that may be unrelated to demand normally. Conditions can be edited by clicking the pencil in the condition's card.
Hint: Use the detail view to check the behaviours are working properly.
Creating a Condition
To create a new condition hit the "Add New Criterion" button.
Give it a unique name, descriptions can be useful as a note to self in future as to exactly what the criterion is for.
The source type can be set to either an installation or a value map. In the case of value maps the set point will be compared to the value using the selected operator. For installations the selected output will be used and compared in the same way. There are a multitude of outputs for each installation type so be sure to check them out.
There are four valid comparison operators for conditions. They are all compared in the following way.
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Therefore in the screencapture above the effect would only trigger, in other words be true, when the engine load is less than 300kWh in a half hour period.
In this example if the engine load drops below 300kWh the load increased by 200kWh. This is only a simple example and may not make sense in context. Effects can be constant or pull their values from a value map themselves.
IMPORTANT: If an event is triggered its effects are carried over into the NEXT half hour. Be mindful of the 30 minute response time if creating multistage control loops using other conditional features of Deimos. Again, please refer to the detail view to check the effects are triggering as desired.
Modules
What is a Module
Within a Scenario - Modules represent the sources of power or storage within the model. Energy demands are fulfilled within a model by the installations within Modules. Modules are edited using the modules dropdown box in a scenario, this is found in the left hand panel.
The Modules' name describes the technology covered within it, Project Profit Loss Entries is a space to add Profit and Loss Entries which are defined around the Site Border. Therefore total exported energy, total unmet demands and items such as contractors employed for the site.
Priority
When Modules are generating/storing electricity, they currently follow a standardised process order:
1
Solar
Generate from Sun
CHP
Generate from Engine
2
Wind
Generate from Wind
Heat Sources
If remaining Demand
5
Batteries discharge
SeIf remaining Demand
Heat Rejection
Reject Excess to Atmosphere
4
Batteries charge
Excess Energy from Site
Hotwell Imports
Excess Energy from Site
3
Engines
If remaining Demand
Hotwell Exports
Use stored for remaining Demand
6
Export Energy
Export to Grid
This process can be changed with Conditional Operations however as a template for 90% of use cases, this is the method followed. As energy from solar and wind are environmentally defined, these are used first and a generator is used to infill the remaining demand. If the generator is set to export, this will be exporting to the grid instead at the set point no matter the behaviour of previous energy sources.
Solar Module
Installation
Similar to other modules solar arrays are added to the simulation by creating an installation, to do so select "Create new installation".
Installation Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Inverter Efficiency
The round trip efficiency of the inverter, this is typically around 90%.
Array Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the solar array.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the solar array will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design Life
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
An installation date is required, if your solar array was installed prior, select the first day of your simulation. Adding a “decommission date” or “design life” is recommended, whichever is earlier of the 2 will be considered the decommission date. If neither are present the solar array is considered to be installed until the end of the simulation.
Solar Panel Model
From this drop down menu select the solar array you wish to model, If the solar array you wish to use is not present contact your administrator or Deimos representative.
Panel Quantity
The number of panels in the array.
This can be estimated with our quick calculator, select the "Estimate" button to the left to bring up the following interface:
Location Information
Latitude
Provide the coordinates for the array, this will be used to an accuracy of 90m2.
Longitude
Provide the coordinates for the array, this will be used to an accuracy of 90m2.
Angle
This is the angle of the panel from the horizontal plane. 0° is flat and 90° is vertical.The optimal heading for your location can be estimated with the “Get optima angle and aspect” button.
Heading
This is the number of degrees from north the front face of the panel is facing. 0° is due north, 270° is west.The optimal heading for your location can be estimated with the “Get optima angle and aspect” button.
Modelling Options
Building Integrated panels
Is the panel directly integrated into the building it is mounted on? For example, panels that form a roof instead of being mounted atop it.
Tracking Type
This is whether the panel is fixed or can move a specified axis, if you are unsure what to use please consult your installer or the Deimos manual.
Fixed
Statically mounted panels with no tracking.
Single Horizontal Axis (North-South)
Seasonal tracking for summer-winter variation in solar Azimuth.
Two-axis Tracking
East-West & North-South tracking for accurate tracking all day and all year.
Vertical Axis Tracking
Vertical axis tracking relative to the panel for improved performance at higher latitudes.
Single Horizontal Axis (East-West)
For daily tracking of the suns path from sunrise to sunset.
Single Inclined Axis (North-South)
Improved seasonal tracking for summer-winter variation in solar Azimuth for higher latitudes.
Typical Profit & loss entries
Wind Module
Installation
Similar to other modules wind turbines are added to the simulation by creating an installation, to do so select "Create new installation".
Installation Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Shade Factor
This is an adjustment to coarsely model obstructions to the the turbine, for example localised terrain vegetation and buildings.
Installation Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the turbine.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the turbine will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
An installation date is required, if your turbine was installed prior, select the first day of your simulation.
Adding a "decommission date" or "design life" is recommended, whichever is earlier of the 2 will be considered the decommission date. If neither are present the wind array is considered to be installed until the end of the simulation.
wind turbine Details
Wind Turbine Model
From this drop down menu select the turbine you wish to model, the interface is searchable so if you just want a 2kW turbine simply type 2kW into the search bar.
if the turbine you wish to use is not present contact your admin or Deimos rep.
Wind Turbine Quantity
The number of turbines in the array.
Location Information
Latitude
Provide the coordinates for the array, this will be used to an accuracy of 5km2.
Longitude
Provide the coordinates for the array, this will be used to an accuracy of 5km2.
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Gas Engine Module
Installation
Similar to other modules Engines are added to the simulation by creating an installation, Select "Create new installation"
Installation Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Installation Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the engine.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the engine will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
An installation date is required, if your engine was installed prior, select the first day of your simulation.
Adding a "decommission date" or "design life" is recommended, whichever is earlier of the 2 will be considered the decommission date. If neither are present the engine is considered to be installed until the end of the simulation.
Engine details
Engine Model
From this drop down menu select the engine you wish to model, If the engine you wish to use is not present contact your administrator or Deimos rep
Engine Quantity
The number of engines of this type to simulate.
The Engines will be treated as being installed in parallel, Deimos will always distribute the load equally over all the engines. Maintenance downtime will apply to all the engines at once, and the set points apply to the combined capacity of all the engines.
Running Properties
Fuel type
Pick the fuel type the engine should be simulated with
BG0
Bio-Gas 100%, Carbon Dioxide 0%
BG20
Bio-Gas 80%, Carbon Dioxide 20%
BG40
Bio-Gas 60%, Carbon Dioxide 40%
BG50
Bio-Gas 50%, Carbon Dioxide 50%
CHP Efficiency
The total efficiency of the CHP system, this is the fraction of heat recovered over the potential recoverable heat from the engine. This is usually over 90%.
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Set Points
Lower Set point
Below this percentage of the total capacity of all the engines in the installation the engines will stop running
Upper Set Point
Above this percentage of the total capacity of all the engines in the installation the engines will stop running. This is often necessary for the lower calorific value of some bio fuels like UCO.
Export Set Point(Optional)
If this is enabled the installation will never drop below this set point. When site load is less than this percentage of generation the engines will continue to run and the excess will be exported.
Controller Sync offset Set Point(Optional)
If “Controller Sync” is enabled a “Controller Offset Set Point” is required for the percentage of total output that is needed to energise the alternators as a contribution to parasitic load.
Typical Profit & Loss entries
Generator Module
Installation
Similar to other modules Engines are added to the simulation by creating an installation, Select "Create new installation"
Installation Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Installation Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the engine.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the engine will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
Engine details
Engine Model
From this drop down menu select the engine you wish to model, If the engine you wish to use is not present contact your administrator or Deimos rep.
Engine Quantity
The number of engines of this type to simulate.
The Engines will be treated as being installed in parallel, Deimos will always distribute the load equally over all the engines. Maintenance downtime will apply to all the engines at once, and the set points apply to the combined capacity of all the engines.
Running Properties
Fuel type
Pick the fuel type the engine should be simulated with
EN590
The standard for automotive diesel in the UK and EU member states
HVO
Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is a thin, high quality and cost biodiesel which is great for transport applications and can give 2 RTFCs.
UCO
Used Cooking Oil in it’s raw state can be run with the right mix of handling, generator type and clean up processes.
UCOME
Used Cooking Oil Methyl Esters are from a waste product and therefore gain 2 RTFCs however can have issues in cold weather.
CHP Type
Select the general type of Combined Heat & power installation is present on all of the engines in the installation.
No CHP
None of the engines in installation use CHP
Custom Coefficient
The “Custom Coefficient” is intended to model an installation that does not conform to the two regular types, and is a coefficient of engine load.
Jacket Water
This option simulates heat recovery through coolant in an engine jacket but no recovery form exhaust.
Exhaust
This option simulates heat recovery through an exhaust heat exchanger but no engine jacket.
Jacket & Exhaust
This option simulates heat recovery from both engine jacket & exhaust heat exchangers.
Set Points
Lower Set point
Below this percentage of the total capacity of all the engines in the installation the engines will stop running
Upper Set Point
Above this percentage of the total capacity of all the engines in the installation the engines will stop running. This is often necessary for the lower calorific value of some bio fuels like UCO.
Export Set Point(Optional)
If this is enabled the installation will never drop below this set point. When site load is less than this percentage of generation the engines will continue to run and the excess will be exported.
Controller Sync offset Set Point(Optional)
If “Controller Sync” is enabled a “Controller Offset Set Point” is required for the percentage of total output that is needed to energise the alternators as a contribution to parasitic load.
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Battery Module
Installation
Similar to other modules batteries are added to the simulation by creating an installation, to do so select "Create new installation".
Bank Details
Name
This is used to Identify the Battery
Installation Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the battery.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the battery will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
Battery Details
Battery Model
From this drop down menu select the battery you wish to model, the interface is searchable so if you just want a 5kWh battery simply type 5kWh into the search bar.
Battery Quantity
The number of batteries in the bank.
Typical Profit & loss entries
Heat Source Module
Installation
Similar to other modules Heat sources are added to the simulation by creating an installation, Select "Create new heat source installation" to do so.
Installation Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Heat Source Type
From this drop down menu select the most appropriate heat source.
Boiler
This simulates a typical Gas boiler based on your given parameters
Heat Pump
This simulates a Heat pump based on a specific model chosen below
Resistive
This simulates a typical electrical immersion heater based on your given parameters
Installation Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the heat source.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the heat source will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
An installation date is required, if your heat source was installed prior, select the first day of your simulation.
Adding a "decommission date" or "design life" is recommended, whichever is earlier of the 2 will be considered the decommission date. If neither are present the heat source is considered to be installed until the end of the simulation.
Boiler / Resistive Heater Parameters
These parameters are only needed if you selected "Boiler" or "Resistive" as your heat source type.
Heater Capacity
The effective maximum heating capacity of your system in kW
Heater Efficiency
The nominal efficiency of your heating system as a percentage of Useful heat (W) over Input power (W).
Heat Pump
These parameters are only needed if you selected "Heat Pump" as your heat source type.
Heat Pump Model
From this drop down menu select the heat source you wish to model, If the heat pump you wish to use is not present contact your administrator or Deimos rep.
Heat Pump Use
Hot water is generally considered high-grade heat, the other two options for use match generally accepted points of ground source heat pumps. This selection will only change the performance of heat pumps, gas boilers and resistive heaters are unaffected.
Hot Water
45℃ target temperature
Heating Low (35℃)
This is a typical output for heat pumps that are primarily used for supplying radiators.
Heating High (55℃)
This is the minimum output for residential hot water systems as it is the recommended temperature for preventing the growth of Legionella.
Typical Profit & Loss Entries
Hot Well Module
Installation
Similar to other modules Engines are added to the simulation by creating an installation, Select "Create new installation"
Hot Well Details
Name
This is used to Identify the installation
Hot Well Design Life
This section defines the time period its possible to call on the hot well.
Installation Date
The date installation will be complete, from this point on the hot well will considered installed
Yes
Decommission date
The date after which the installation will not be available
Optional
Design LIfe
The number of years from the “Installation Date” that the Installation will be available, after this the installation will be considered decommissioned.
Optional
An installation date is required, if your hot well was installed prior, select the first day of your simulation.
Adding a "decommission date" or "design life" is recommended, whichever is earlier of the 2 will be considered the decommission date. If neither are present the hot well is considered to be installed until the end of the simulation.
Hot Well Performance Details
Consult your consultant or vendor if you cannot find/calculate any of the following values.
Output Heat Exchanger Capacity
Nominal output heat exchanger capacity, calculated from expected temperatures and fluid flow rates through the exchanger. This figure is used to clamp the heat input and output in kWh to the hot well.
Required Outlet Temperature
The lowest usable temperature the output of the hot well can be.
Input Heat Exchanger Efficiency
The up stream efficiency of the heat exchanger between the heat source and the hot well.
Ambient Temperature
Annualised average temperature of the environment the hot well sits in.
Output Heat Exchanger Efficiency
The down stream efficiency of the heat exchanger to the plant that requires heat.
Input Heat Exchanger Capacity
Nominal input heat exchanger capacity, calculated from expected temperatures and fluid flow rates through the exchanger. This figure is used to clamp the heat input and output in kWh to the hot well.
Exterior Surface Area
The exterior surface area of the hot well.
Hot Well Liquid
Pick the liquid that the hot well and the loops to the heat exchangers are filled Water is one of the most common.
Heat trasfer Coefficient - Exterior
The total heat transfer coefficient from the liquid to the gas surrounding the hot well exterior.
Volume
The fluid volume of the hot well.
Operational Times
During "Operational Times" the simulation will call on installations as necessary however outside of operational times installations will be treated as being disconnected from the system.
The operational times for the installation can be scheduled with the interactive calendar. To add up-time simply drag and drop to create a block between your start and end time over one or multiple days.
To remove up-time drag and drop inside of an existing up-time block.
Maintenance
To allow the model to account for downtime & expenses related to installation maintenance create maintenance plan by toggling the maintenance block:
This reveals the maintenance panel, a list of your current maintenance plans that can be edited, duplicated & deleted.
selecting the "Add entry" button creates the window shown below:
Name
Label your maintenance entry
Interval
The Interval between maintenance events of this type in hours
Downtime Length
The installation downtime in hours
Parts Cost
The average parts cost of this type of maintenance event
Labour Cost
The average labour cost of this type of maintenance event
Deferral Plan (Immediate)
This will start the next maintenance event the moment (half hour) the engine engine runtime exceeds the specified interval time since the last maintenance event.
Deferral Plan (Nominated Day)
This triggers the maintenance event on the soonest specified time & day of the week after the engine engine runtime exceeds the specified interval time since the last maintenance event.
Financial Settings
General Settings
To find the financial settings please navigate to the finance page.
Then hit "Edit Options".
This will take you to the following screen.
Fixed rates are inflation and taxation rates that remain constant over the entire scenario. The DCF discount is used to discount later year cashflows in the financial report. You can also use the points to create your own mapping of inflation over time, note that for times between points the calculation will linearly interpolate between them so for example if year 1 was 0% and year 10 was 10% then year 5 would be 5%. tax points also work in a similar way.
Note, that this only describes the inflation rate, inflated values are calculated from an internal inflation index that is currently not returned.
Loans
Loans can be accessed immediately below the general financial settings.
To create a new loan press "Create new loan", to edit a created loan use the pencil icon in the loan's card.
Start year represents when the loan was taken out, repayment begin in the January of that year. The loan term determines how long the loan lasts. Amount represents the size of the loan including fees, interest represents the annual interest paid annually over the whole term of the loan. Amortisation is an option to determine whether the principal is paid back over the loan, if this is not the case then only the interest will be paid on the loan not the principal.
Assets
Assets are a way to calculate the depreciation of installations and incorporate them into the financial model.
Press the "Create New Asset" button to make a new asset, or to edit an asset click the pencil in the assets card.
Assets are primarily affected by their cost and salvage value. Salvage value is the expected sale price of the asset at the end of it's useful life.
Installation date and decommission date therefore determines the useful life of the asset. In Deimos assets are depreciated in a straight line between their installation and decommission dates.
Profit and Loss Entries
Profit and loss entries are measured items that can then be seen in the report and displayed in visualisations.
Profit and Losses are shown as a summary within each module as:
Profit and losses can be added as a measurement of a factor. The image above shows a measurement of how many kWh are produced by a solar installation.
Name
Identifier for the report - this should be clear such as "Solar Energy Generated - Solar Energy to Load - Solar Energy Export"
Type
One of: incomes, expenditures, statistics, or carbon.
Category
One of: Operation, Maintenance, Energy Generation, Fuel, Statistics, or Custom.
Value
The unit of measurement.
Actions
Delete or Duplicate, select the green arrow to the right of the the entries name to edit it.
Using the view selector on the top right, a view of when profit and losses are active can be seen. This is defined by the time period selection in the setup.
This sketch cannot currently be displayed in exports
Creating an Entry - Basic
To create a new Profit & Loss Entry select the Add Entry button at the top right of the Profit & Loss Entries section, this will bring you to a page like the one seen in the screen shot below.
Complexity
For a basic entry keep to the default left selection "Basic" to learn more about the advanced features see Advanced Features below.
Name & Categories
Name
Aim to keep the names of your entries clear & specific. Try to keep it obvious which modules & installations they refer to as they will all be appearing in the report, & visualisation series selection pane together.
Entry Type
Entry Types each have their own table in the reports section to help you keep your simulations findings organised. You can send your entries to one of 4 table types:
- Statistics
- Income
- Expenditure
- Carbon
Category
Categories are subsections within the report tables for further organisation of your simulation findings. There are 5 preset categories:
- Operation
- Maintenance
- Energy Generation
- Fuel
- Statistics
however more can be added by selecting "custom".
Value Information
Price vs Number of
If price is selected the value will be treated as a an expense/income and be included in the financial analysis.
Alternatively,
If Number of is selected the value will not be included in financial analysis but still appear in report tables. If the units conflict they will be separated into a different table of the same type and excluded from running totals etc.
Value
This is a constant value that your unit will be multiplied by. If you would just like a measure of the Unit set this to "1"
Example: "Gas Expenditure"
If you would like to estimate the cost of your boilers gas usage, and your supplier charges 7.42 pence per kWh then your unit will be "0.0742"
Unit
This is the measured variable from the simulation that the value will be multiplied by.
Example: "Gas Expenditure"
If you would like to estimate the cost of your boilers gas usage, the Unit should be set to "/kWh of Gas Used"
Value Divisor
This is an optional divisor it divides the product of the Value & the Unit by a constant value you enter.
Example: "Fuel Delivery Expenditure"
If you have fuel delivered to your site by truck 30,000L at a time at a cost of £650 then you can account for it by:
1. Navigate to your [Engine Module] [Profit & Loss Entries].
2. Add a new [Profit & Loss Entries|Profit & Loss Entry].
3. Set a clear Name such as: "Fuel Delivery Expenditure".
4. Set the appropriate type and category:
Type: Statistic
Category: Fuel
5. Fill the Value information as:
Price/Number of: Price
Value: 650
Unit: / litre
Value Divisor: 30000
6. In fuel type select the appropriate options for your site.
7. Select Create profit & loss entry to save your changes.
Pass Units to Report
This option is only available for Statistic Entry Types . When this option is enabled the units from Unit will be passed onto the report.
Time Period
This section allows your to filter your [Profit & Loss Entries|Profit & Loss Entry] to a specific time period.
To use this option set the toggle next to "Specific time period" to on (green & to the right).
You can set a From (starting date), an Until (ending date) or both. Select the value box and a date selector will allow you to select any valid date from your simulation, alternatively you can type the date in the format
dd/mm/yyyy.
Suppress from Calculation
This option allows your to disable your profit & loss entries without deleting them.
Advanced Features
The Advanced Features allow for more complex Profit & Loss Entries , to access them select Advanced in the Complexity section.
Value Maps
This option allows the use of a Value Map in place of a static variable as your Value . When values from your Value Map are not available it will use the Default Value.
To use a dataset for a profit & loss value rather than a static value:
.1Upload your value map
.iiNavigate to the "value maps" tab;
.iiiSelect "Add value map"
.ivSelect "Upload"
.vSelect "Type" as "Profit & loss"
.viUpload your CSV file from step 1.1
.viiSelect appropriate date format
.viiiSelect "Upload"
.2Add your value map in the advanced profit & loss section
.iNavigate to your module.
.iiSelect your profit & loss entry or select "Add entry" to create a new one
.iiiUnder "Complexity Level Selection" select "Advanced"
.ivUnder "Use Value Map" select your value map from step 1
.vUnder "Value Information, Unit" select the unit by which your values will be multiplied
.viUnder "Value Information, Default Value" select a value for the system to default to whenever the value map is not available
.viiSelect "Edit Profit & Loss Entry" at the bottom right to save your changes
Filter entry to Installation
This option allows you to select which installations are included in the profit & loss. Use the drop down menu to select the installations to be included and add them with the green button. You should see the installations appear as a block in the area below.
Schedule
The Scheduler allows you to quickly map different values by time & day of the week to be used in place of a static Value . When values from your Schedule are not available it will use the Default Value.
Statistics
Statistics are a type of Profit and Loss Entry that are not directly monetary or carbon, things like kWh generated. They appear in the Statistics table in Reports and an overview of all your statistics entries can be found in the Statistics tab.
The Statistics overview lets you view, edit duplicate & delete statistics from all your modules in the same place.
Creating an Aggregation
Aggregations allow you to combine multiple entries of different types, each value from all the included entries will be added at each frame to create your aggregation entry. This will be viewable in the Aggregated Statistics table in Reports and be a plotable series in Visualisation Dashboards.
To create a new Aggregation click the green "create new aggregation" button in the top right or to edit an existing Aggregation select the pencil icon to the right of it's name.
This brings you to the following page:
Details
Name
This is used to Identify the Aggregation entry.
Unit
This is the unit that will be passed on the the aggregation entry, it is for display only it will not be multiplied like units in Profit and Loss Entry .
Statistics
Here you add your existing statistics entries from the drop down menu one at a time and click the Add statistics button. You should see all the entries you wish to aggregate appear as blocks with a delete button to remove them if needed.
Levelised Costs
Levelised Costs allow a high level of control for generating representative future discounted costs of various services. Levelised Costs are discounted much in the same way net present value is, giving rise to the alternative term for levelised costs ‘Net Present Cost of Energy.
What are Levelised Costs?
Levelised costs are a representation of the present cost of a service discounted by its initial & ongoing costs as well as depreciation. In this context we typically look at levelised costs of energy generation like electricity or heat.
The levlised cost is given by the following formula:
This element (formula) isn't supported, or may require an update to be displayed. You can try to refresh the app.
Where a the discount rate $r$ is chosen in Cost Analysis Perimeters as well as a fixed lifetime $n$ is based on the Start and end year.
Costs & investments are added as Profit & Loss Entries & Assets typically including:
- $
I_{t}$ : Investment expenditure for year $t$ - $M_{t}$ : Operational & maintenance expenditure for year $t$
- $F_{t}$ : Fuel expenditure for year $t$
Creating a Levelised Cost
To add Levelised Costs navigate to the relevant scenario.
Once in the Project select the **Levelised Costs** page in the side bar.
Select Create New Levelised Cost Entry
Details
Use Name to label your levelised cost entry. Optionally further detail can be added in the description field.
Select Installation Output
Source Installation
Use Source Installation to select the relevant installation who's output will be affected.
Selected Source Installation Output
Use Selected Source Installation Output to select the installation output parameter to be affected.
Cost Analysis Parameters
Discount Rate
This is a compounding year on year discount rate that will be applied to the sources output.
Start & End Year
Enter the start and end date of the period the levelising cost filter should apply to.
Costs & Investments
Add Costs & Investments the service value will be discounted based on.
Operation Criteria
WARNING: This is an advanced feature
Operational Criteria give the user the ability to trigger actions from installations based on value maps or the states of other installations.
The Operational criteria page is located in the side bar when inside a Scenario.
Select Scenarios in the the navigation bar and select the scenario the criteria should apply to.
in the side bar select the Operation Criteria page.
Creating a Criterion
Selecting "Add new criterion" reveals the operational criteria form.
Criterion Details
Name
A display name for your Criteria
Description
An optional description for your criteria
Priority
This decides in what order the conditions are considered and which is applied if they conflict.
Note that larger values have higher priority.
Its good practice to add priorities in large increments if you plan on adding several, this makes it easier to add intermediate conditions after the fact. For example If you have 4 conditions:
Condition
Priority
Dependant to
1, Highest
500
none
2
400
1
3
300
1 & 2
4, Lowest
200
1 & 2 & 3
This leaves plenty of room for additions above below & in between.
Source
This is the dependant variable your condition is based on. This can be either a Value Map or an Installation state.
Value Map
Value maps can be used to drive conditional triggers, see the Value maps guide for more information.
Installation
Select the installation the condition will be based on and the condition to monitor.
Trigger
IMPORTANT: If an event is triggered its effects are carried over into the NEXT half hour. Be mindful of the 30 minute response time if creating multistage control loops using other conditional features of Deimos. Again, please refer to the detail view to check the effects are triggering as desired.
Operator
Select a logical operator.
- Greater Than (>)
- Greater Than or Equal To (>=)
- Less Than (<)
- Less Than or Equal To (<=)
Set Point
Select a value to compare against your source.
Target
Target installation
Select the Installation to affect.
Action
Select the behaviour to be triggered.
Disconnect
Force Active
Force Heating
Force Export
Hot Well
Disconnect
Demand Side Response
Discharge
Battery
Charge
Demand Side Response
Installation Type
Actions
Wind Turbine
Disconnect
Solar Array
Disconnect
Engine
Disconnect
Heat Source
Disconnect
Detail View
The Detail View generates graphs at the half hourly resolution for any period of 28 days or less at any point in your simulation for every installation.
Detail View is found by select the Detail View pane on the navigation bar.
Use the drop down to select the scenario to be assessed along with a start and end date for the period to be visualised.
There will be a pane for each each module as well as demand and headless. navigate between the different panes with the selector below.
Module panes will only be generated if there are active installations in the time period selected.
A visualisation will be generated with all the relevant series for each installation as well if there are multiple installations in a module an additional chart with aggregations of all the installation series will be generated.
Below is an example of a project with 2 heat pumps and a gas boiler back up on a chilly day.
Reports
Reports display the key numerical takeaways of your Scenarios. Reports are found by select the Reports pane on the navigation bar.
Once in the Reports pane select the Scenario you are assessing and the type of report to generate.
There are 4 types of report:
- Financial
- Carbon
- Levelised Cost
- Downtime
Within "Report settings" the report can be switched form yearly entries over the course of the scenario to monthly entries from a given year with the "Report Granularity" option.
Financial Reports
If there are no relevant values Tables will not be generated, if there are series with miss matching units multiple tables will be generated.
Income table
First table
Section
Location
Description
IRR
Top right
Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the effective annual rate of return, or equivalently a theoretical discount rate that would bring the NPV to 0.
Cash Flows
Fourth table
The Cash Flows table displays a number of automatically generated financial series:
- Capital Expenditure
- Cash Flow (CF)
- Free Cash Flow (FCF)
- Free Cash Flow to Firm (FCFF)
- Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
Expenditure table
Second table
The Expenditure Table displays the expenditure each year/month based on you Profit & Loss Entries and Maintenance plans.
Net Income Calculations
Third table
The Net Income Calculations table displays a number of automatically generated financial series:
- Gross Profit
- Pre-tax Depreciation
- Pre-tax Interest
- Pre-tax Amount
- Pre-tax Earnings
- Tax
- Net Income
NPV
Top right
Net Present Value (NPV) is a measure of the value of your scenario as an investment opportunity with all cash flows discounted to their present value.
NPV is found by the formula:
Where $R_{t}$ is cash flow at time $t$, $i$ is the discount rate set in [[Financial Settings]], and $t$ is time.
Carbon Reports
Carbon reports generate the following information:
Section
Location
Description
Carbon
First table
The Carbon table displays all [[Profit & Loss Entries]] with the Type "Carbon".
Statistics
Second table
The Statistics table displays all your [[Profit & Loss Entries|Statistics entries]].
Levelised Cost
Downtime
Downtime Reports display average annual downtime for all installations based on any Maintenance Entries .
Visualisations
Dashboards
Dashboards help you organise your graphs into relevant pages, Select the green button at the top right to create a new dashboard. This will prompt you to name and optionally describe the new dashboard.
For Existing Dashboards this page can be found with the "edit dashboard" button (Pencil icon).
Charts
Once you have created a dashboard you can add charts to it with the green "Create Chart" at the top right. This will bring you to the chart editor page seen below.
Chart Details
Chart Title
This sets your charts heading
Chart Type
Use the drop down selector to choose one of the following:
- Bar
- Horizontal Bar
- Line
- Doughnut
Time Base Selection
Use the drop down selector to choose the resolution of your chart.
Option
Usage
Chart types
Daily
Displays daily values for a set year. Year is set per series.
Line
Monthly
Displays end of month totals for a set year. Year is set per series.
Line, Bar & Horizontal Bar
Yearly
Displays end of year totals for the duration of the Scenario
Line, Bar, Horizontal Bar & Doughnut
Layout
Enable Legend
When "Enable Legend" is enabled an interactive legend is generated at the bottom of the chart.
By selecting the square coloured marker to the left of the series name the series can be hidden & un-hidden from the chart.
Enable Stacking
When "Enable Stacking" is enabled the series will be stacked on top of each other in the order they where added.
Multiple Stacks: Series are stacked only with other series in the same stack. Users can choose one of three different stacks for each series.
Chart Series
Your charts data series can be manged under the "Chart Series" toggle, here they can be added, edited & removed. All the Series included in your chart will appear as summary blocks in Chart Series.
click "Add series" to reveal the page below:
Name
Name is the label this series will have in the Legend.
Scenario
Select the Scenario your data series is from.
Series Type
Option
Usage
Module
Used to show the total Supply to Load of a chosen module or the electrical/thermal load.
Installation
Used to show the total Supply to Load of a chosen Installation.
Financial Analysis Entry
- Capital Expenditure
- Cash Flow (CF)
- Depreciation
- Earnings Before Taxation
- Expenditure
- Free Cash Flow (FCF)
- Free Cash Flow to Equity (FCFE)
- Free Cash Flow to Firm (FCFF)
- Interest
- Loan Payment
- Net Income
- Amount
- Revenue
- Tax
- Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
Year
This option doesn't appear if your "Time Base" is set to yearly.
Add the year of data to use, this should be the year of the simulation.
i.e. If your simulation begins in 2030 and you want the data from 2035 you would enter "6" as this is the 6th year of the simulation
Invert Series
If "Invert Series" is enabled the series is multiplied by -1 flipping it vertically.
Series Colour
Select one of 12 colours to represent your series.
Formatting Options
Enable Moving Average
This option is only available if "Time Base" is set to Daily.
When "Moving Average" is enabled a Moving Average filter will be applied to all of your series.
The Moving Average Window is the number of days either side the average will sample, i.e. a "Moving Average Window" of 3 will give a 7 day moving average.
Rounding Type
By default Values are rounded to 3 decimal places, but values can be rounded to a chosen number of decimal places (Decimal) or significant figures (Significant).
The rounding Precision is the number of decimal places or significant figures the values will be rounded to.
Axes Options
Axes Pre/Suffixes
Use this option to add prefixes & suffixes to the axes labels.
Axis Titles
Use the X & Y Axes Title text boxes to add titles to their respective axes.
Visualisations Power graphs
- Setting up module power comparison
- Bar Graphs
- Line graphs
- Ways to smooth data - Monthly, Rounding, Moving Average
- Adding Legends
- Defining a Stack and Using it
Visualisations Financial graphs
- Setting up PnL Comparisons
- Showing Profits and Losses on one graph With Stacking
- Daily averaged for Months to Make sense
- See previous Tutorial for how to present this
- Bar Graphs
- Line graphs
- Ways to smooth data - Monthly, Rounding, Moving Average
- Adding Legends
- Defining a Stack and Using it
Headroom Study
The headroom Study page allows users to asses a scenario by year both visually and in terms of some key headroom metrics.
Creating a Headroom Study
Refresh the data if there have been any recent changes to the scenario.
Once in the Headroom Study Page browse the years of your simulation with the timeline.
This will generate a visualisation of generation vs load for the given year.
Headroom Metrics
Backup
This is the percentage of maximum load that the generators and battery output can supply. For example a value of 110% would be that your on site supply could meet 110% of the sites maximum demand.
Curtailment
This is the percentage of output from energy sources of the annual generation of the site that is unable to be exported due to an undersized connection. If this were 100% it would mean none of the energy generated on the site supplied the site or was exported.
Endurance
This is how many hours the backup batteries backups on site can last, a negative value means the on site generation can run the site indefinitely as long as they are fuelled.
Headroom
Headroom is the maximum value of generation added to the size of the incomer divided by the demand, if this value is less than 100% then the site power will fail to meet demand.
Provisioning
This value is the potential percentage of the total demand of the site provided by generators and batteries.
Island Mode
Is true if the site can run independent of the grid or is false if the site dependant on the grid for importing or exporting energy.
Incomer Capacity Sufficient
Is true if the site power demand can be met without exceeding the incomer capacity.
Sensitivity Studies
Sensitivity Studies are a way of testing your scenario's tolerance for changes in base assumptions. It will generate a copy of your scenario with the selected changes for comparison.
To create a sensitivity study navigate to the Scenarios page and select the scenario you wish to study.
Once in the Scenario select "Run a Sensitivity Study" in the panel on the left.
Creating a Study
New Scenario Name
The title for your study. The Sensitivity Study will create a new scenario based on the one you are in, by default it will inherit the name of the scenario its based on.
Parameters
Here you select which perimeters of the current scenario to change and what they will change to.
Process Heat
Adjusts the heat demand value if your model uses a static value for heat demand.
Loan Term
Adjusts the Loan Term
DCF Discount Rate
Adjusts the DCF Discount Rate
Parameter
Usage
Loan Interest
Adjusts the Loan Interest
Project Length
Adjusts the length of the Scenario in years.
Asset Entry
Adjusts the Asset Entry
Operation Criteria
Adjusts the Set point for a given Operation criteria.
Tax Rate
Adjusts the Tax Rate
Loan Amount
Adjusts the Loan Amount
Inflation Rate
Adjusts the Inflation Rate
Project Start Year
Adjusts the starting year of the Scenario
Profit Loss Entry
Adjusts the value of a Profit Loss Entry.