Creating the report

At the end of a project stands the output. EPOS-Plan brings project description, technology used, simulation results and economics together in a comparison report as a Word file and creates an Excel workbook with the same figures alongside it. The subject of a report is not a single project but a comparison group: the base project and the variants derived from it. Every report run recalculates the projects involved beforehand – first the simulation, then the economics, then the document.

This page describes the working sequence in the program. The assessment methodology behind it is described by the subpage Economic analysis, the income side by the Revenue calculation and the environmental effect by the subpage Emissions.

Contents of this page

Comparison group of base project and variants

Variants always arise from the base project. Bring the open project to the state you want and call up Projects › Save as variant…; you assign a name under which this state is carried on as a variant. Every variant has its own data records, so that a change there affects neither the base project nor the other variants. The base project remains the reference point: all key figures of a variant are reported as the difference against the base. Which projects of the group enter a report is selected in the dialogue Projects › Variants/report.

Configuring the report sections

A report is assembled from sections that can be switched on and off individually – project description, component overview, results per variant, comparison of variants, economics, appendix. From the same data this yields either a concise decision paper or a complete documentation. The compilation is saved and is available again for the next report. Texts, labels and number formats follow the program language set, German or English.

The report run

Every run recalculates, in a fixed order: first a fresh simulation of all selected projects, then the economic analysis of the whole group, and only afterwards the sections of the document. Word and Excel output take the same route and therefore necessarily report the same figures. A report thus never rests on an outdated simulation status – not even if inputs were changed in the meantime. The run costs time accordingly: for three projects around 35 seconds are to be expected, and the dialogue names the number of projects involved before the start.

If the calculation fails for one project, the run does not abort. The affected project appears with its name and the reason in the final message, in the appendix table of simulation states and in the chapter with the notes on the report run. There is no half report without a note.

The Word report

The Word report is built as a comparison report: cover sheet, table of contents and project description including the building data, a component matrix with the characteristics and the deviations per variant, the results per variant, the comparison of variants with difference tables as well as an appendix with the simulation states and the methodology. Embedded are pie charts of demand coverage, bar charts for the comparison of variants and four profiles: annual heat profile, load duration curve, monthly electricity balance and storage level. All charts come from the simulation of the same run, so that no mixed calculation states stand side by side.

The Excel evaluation

In parallel a workbook with key figure, comparison and detail sheets is created. It contains the same results in a form that can be processed further – the right route if you want to adopt individual values, append your own evaluations or transfer figures into an existing quotation calculation.

Template, language and output without Office

The Word report is produced from a supplied template that can be adapted to your own corporate design: headers and footers, fonts and colours remain in your hands without anything having to be changed in the structure of the report. EPOS-Plan writes both files itself – an Office installation is required neither for the Word nor for the Excel report. Any program that can read the formats is sufficient to open them and work on them further.

Notes for practice

Create variants in such a way that only one quantity differs at a time – machine size, storage volume, operating mode or order of generators. Only then can a difference in the comparison be attributed unambiguously to one cause. Keep the boundary conditions of the assessment the same across all variants, otherwise the report does not compare technology but assumptions. And plan the run in: because every report goes through the complete calculation chain, it is worth completing the inputs first and then producing the output once, instead of printing a half-finished group several times.

Where the output sits in the overall sequence is shown by the Program workflow overview. The assessment itself is described by the subpage Economic analysis, the engineering background is given under Fundamentals › Economic analysis, worked cases under Examples.