Anchor Power Solutions Releases EnCompass 3.5
Anchor Power Solutions is pleased to announce the release of EnCompass 3.5, which includes detailed modeling, grid computing features, and expanded reporting. This version, representing the culmination of releases made during 2018 in response to client requests, provides even more capabilities for resource planning, market price forecasting, risk analysis, and budgeting.
Battery Evaluation
EnCompass includes advance modeling of battery resources, which are emerging as a vital technology for integrating renewable energy resources on a large scale. Charging can be restricted to a designated resource, essentially pairing a battery set with a specific wind or solar farm. The full range between charging and discharging capacities can count towards spinning and regulating reserves, limited by the current amount of energy stored. Penalties can be imposed on the depth of discharge cycles, which is a primary factor on the effective lifetime of a battery and is usually based on the replacement costs and cycle depth aging stress function of the battery. The penalty is not treated as an actual cost, but instead will prevent excess deep discharges that lead to a shorter useful life.
Combined Cycle Components
Individual components of a combined cycle resource can be modeled as gas turbines with simple cycle heat rate curves and a steam turbine that converts waste heat from the gas turbines, plus additional gas burned from duct-firing if allowed, into electricity. If the steam turbine is online, then all the waste heat generated by the gas turbines must be used (i.e., no venting or damping). If the steam turbine is offline, then the waste heat may bypass the steam turbine, allowing the gas turbines to operate in simple-cycle mode.
Fuel Limits and Supply Curves
EnCompass can recognize incremental annual fuel supply costs, which represent additional exploration and production costs associated with increased consumption levels. The fuel supply costs are explicitly applied in long-term annual runs, which are then applied to more detailed shorter-term runs.
Maximum and minimum annual limits may be applied to generation capacity factors and fuel delivery point fuel consumption. These annual limits are explicitly applied in long-term annual runs, which are then allocated to more detailed shorter-term runs. These annual limits can be combined with weekly and daily fuel limits and hourly maximum flow limits.
Fixed fuel costs can be set for a fuel at a specific delivery point, which usually represent firm gas reservation charges or fixed coal handling costs. These costs do not affect the optimization results but are included in company production costs.
Managing Computing Grids
The EnCompass Management Console can be used to create new databases, manage accounts and users, view user activity logs, and allocate runs across connected grid computers. For runs on remote grid computers, users can monitor the progress of those runs, view partial results as they are completed, and choose to cancel runs if necessary.
Expanded Hourly Charts
Hourly area charts show results by technology type, including available capacity, generation, and ancillary services.
About Anchor Power Solutions
Anchor Power Solutions provides planning software and consulting services for the power industry with a focus on market price forecasting, economic transmission analysis, integrated resource planning, budgeting, and risk analysis. Anchor Power Solutions developed EnCompass Software to accomplish all these functions in a single, easy-to-use system. For a custom demonstration, contact info@anchor-power.com.
