HOMER Front:
HOMER Front is a techno-economic tool designed to assist developers, system integrators, independent power producers (IPPs) in determining optimal sizing and economic viability of utility scale renewable (Solar/Wind + storage) systems. HOMER Front will evaluate profitability using Merchant Energy Sales, capacity markets, or power purchase agreements (PPAs). HOMER Front can also run a sensitivity or risk analysis for factors outside of your control.
HOMER Front simplifies the task of evaluating designs for utility scale power systems. When you design a power system, you must make many decisions about the configuration of the system, such as:
•Which components are best for this system?
•How many and what size of each component are most profitable?
•Which markets should the system participate in?
The cost of storage, variation in revenue markets, and availability of energy resources make these decisions difficult. HOMER Front's optimization and sensitivity analysis algorithms make it easier to evaluate the many possible system configurations.
Using HOMER Front
To use HOMER Front, you select and enter information under Project Setup, Application, Equipment, and Project Economics to provide the model with inputs, including equipment costs, and resource availability.
When you click the Results button, HOMER Front uses these inputs to simulate different system configurations, or combinations of equipment, and generates results that you can view as a list of feasible configurations sorted by net present value under the Results section. HOMER Front also displays simulation results in a wide variety of tables and graphs that help you compare configurations and evaluate them on their economic and technical merits. You can export the Time Series and Cash Flow results into a CSV format for use in presentations or client reports.
You can further use the model to perform sensitivity analyses to explore the effects that changes in factors, such as resource availability and economic conditions, might have on the cost-effectiveness of different system configurations. To perform a sensitivity analysis, you provide HOMER Front with sensitivity values that describe a range of resource availability and equipment costs. The software simulates each system configuration using the range of values. You can use the results of a sensitivity analysis to identify the factors that have the greatest impact on the design and operation of a power system. You can also use HOMER Front's sensitivity analysis results to answer general questions about technology options to inform planning and policy decisions.
How HOMER Front Works
HOMER Front simulates energy systems, shows system configurations optimized by cost, and provides sensitivity analyses.
Simulation
HOMER Front simulates the operation of a system by making energy balance calculations in each time step (interval) of the year. For each time step, HOMER compares the electric demand in that time step to the energy that the system can supply in that time step, and calculates the flow of energy to and from each equipment of the system. For systems that include storage, HOMER Front also decides in each time step how to charge or discharge the batteries.
HOMER Front performs these energy balance calculations for each system configuration that you want to consider. It then determines whether a configuration is feasible, (i.e., whether it can meet the demand under the conditions that you specify), and estimates the cost of installing and operating the system over the lifetime of the project. The system cost calculations account for costs such as capital, replacement, operation and maintenance,and interest.
Optimization
The original HOMER algorithm simulates all of the feasible system configurations defined by the Sizing of your equipment. HOMER Front then displays a list of configurations, sorted by net present value that you can use to compare system design options.
Sensitivity Analysis
When you define sensitivity variables as inputs, HOMER Front repeats the optimization process for each sensitivity variable that you specify. For example, if you define wind speed as a sensitivity variable, HOMER Front simulates system configurations for the range of wind speeds that you specify.
