The Power Generation Pattern allows you to specify a weekly, daily, and hourly distribution of the specified energy requirements. The pattern covers a week and each day is described with a set of 24-hourly weighting factors. By default, the weekly pattern repeats throughout the year unless you specify a set of seasons and a different pattern for each season.

Weekly Distribution

Three options are available for specifying the weekly power pattern: All Week, Weekdays and Weekend, and Each Day. These options are available from the Specify Pattern for list.

Hourly Distribution

Each day of the Power Generation Pattern table is divided into 24 hourly values. Each value represents a weighting factor that you can use to distribute the energy requirement throughout the day and throughout the week. The default value for each hour of the day is 1.0 "Figure: Power Generation Patterns - All Week or Weekdays and Weekends" which will attempt to evenly distribute the energy requirement across the day.

However, if you want the power plant to generate only during a portion of the day, you can set the factor for those hours to 1.0 and set all other hours to 0.0. Basically, the values of 1.0 and 0.0 turn the hourly generation "on" and "off", respectively.

For example, to specify that generation should only occur from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 7 days a week, use the All Week pattern and change the value of 1.0 to 0.0 for hours 0000-0800 and 1700-2400 ("Figure: Example Generation Pattern - On from 8 am - 5 pm").

Figure: Example Generation Pattern - On from 8 am - 5 pm

The weighting factor aspect of the values in the table comes into play when the values used in the pattern are not just 0's and 1's; in other words, when the generation should be distributed unevenly over the "on" hours.

For example, to indicate that the generation between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. should be twice the generation of the other generating hours, you could change the value of 1.0 to 2.0 for hours 1000-1300 ("Figure: Example Pattern - Varied Hour of Day Weighting"). The sum of the weighting factors for each day in this example is 6(1.0) + 3(2.0) = 12.0. If each day's energy requirement was 12 megawatt-hours, then the "unit" generation requirement would be 1 megawatt (12 MWh/12 units). Thus, from 8am to 10am and from 1pm to 5pm, the plant would generate at a rate of 1 megawatt (1 MW * 1.0 weighting factor), but from 10am to 1pm, the plant would generate at a rate of 2 megawatts (1 MW * 2.0 weighting factor).

Figure: Example Pattern - Varied Hour of Day Weighting

Daily Distribution

Another aspect of the weighting factors that should be understood is the impact of a pattern that changes from day to day throughout the week. If the pattern is specified for Each Day or for Weekdays and Weekend, then the weighting factors are summed for the entire week and applied to the generation requirement for the whole week.
For example, if the weekly generation requirement is 20MWh and the daily pattern is for Each Day, then the following power requirement would be specified as shown in "Figure: Weighting Factors throughout the Days of the Week":

Figure: Weighting Factors throughout the Days of the Week


  • No generation on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday;
  • Generation on Monday and Friday is from 10am to 2pm;
  • Generation on Wednesday is for the same hours as Monday and Friday but at twice the rate.

In this example, the sum of the weighting factors is 4(1.0) + 4(2.0) + 4(1.0) = 16 which produces a unit generation of 20/16.0 = 1.25. Thus, for each hour on Monday and Friday, 1.25 MWh of energy will be produced for a total of 5 MWh each day and for each hour on Wednesday, 2.5 MWh of energy will be produced for a total of 10 MWh, resulting in the total of 20 MWh for the week.

Seasonal Variation

If the weekly pattern varies throughout the year, then you can click the Seasonal Variation Edit… button to open the Seasonal Variation editor ("Figure: Seasonal Variation Editor for Specification of Seasons"). This editor will allow to you define the seasons for which different generation patterns apply. To define the seasons, enter the start date of each season. The first season always starts on the first of January, so if you have a season that begins before the end of the year and ends after the first of January, then you must define the first half of the season as the last season in the table and the second half as the first season in the table.

Figure: Seasonal Variation Editor for Specification of Seasons

If you define two or more seasons, the Power Generation Pattern editor will show:

  • a checkmark in the checkbox in front of the Seasonal Variation label

  • a season selector and a set of navigation buttons so that you can specify the pattern that should apply to each season ("Figure: Power Generation Pattern Editor with Season Selector").

    Figure: Power Generation Pattern Editor with Season Selector

The power generation pattern you define for one season will apply to all days and weeks of that season until the start date of the next season.