Creating custom simulations

You view and create custom simulations on the Simulations page, under Tasks in the left-hand navigation menu.

Simulation list

The simulation list shows all custom simulations created in your workspace. It works like the asset list and the PPA list, with its own columns:

1. ID
2. Name
3. Assets, the number of assets in the simulation
4. PPAs, the number of PPAs in the simulation
5. Created, the date and time of creation
6. Author

You can search the list by simulation name and choose which columns to show in the view options. The buttons on the right of each row let you rename, share, or delete a simulation. To delete several simulations at once, select them in the list and click Delete. Deleted simulations cannot be restored, and external stakeholders they were shared with lose access.

How to create a custom simulation

Click Create simulation at the top right of the simulation list, then select the assets and scenarios to include. Click Next step to move from asset selection to scenario selection, and Confirm to create the simulation.

Choosing assets

First, select every asset you want to include in the simulation. Only assets with a solar or battery component are listed. You can select up to 1,000 assets; contact Tensor support if you need more.

Click an asset in the list to select it. In a large workspace, you can narrow the list by searching by location, name, or ID, or by filtering by grid area, PPA, tags, and start date, and then add the results to your selection.

Choosing scenarios

Next, select the scenarios to include and compare against each other. The number of assets multiplied by the number of scenarios cannot exceed 1,000, so the more assets you selected, the fewer scenarios you can choose. For example, with 250 assets you can select up to 4 scenarios, and with 500 assets up to 2.

note

Selecting scenarios for a simulation does not change the default scenario assigned to each asset.

Time requirements

Tensor Cloud runs a detailed techno-economic simulation for each asset under each selected scenario. A simulation with 250 assets and 4 scenarios, for example, runs 1,000 simulations, each generating millions of data points, for billions of calculations in total. The infrastructure runs these in parallel, but the process can still take a few minutes, depending on how many simulations are being generated at the same time. The more assets and scenarios you include, the longer you may have to wait.

tip

For fast results, keep the number of scenarios in the simulation as low as possible.