HOMER Pro 3.16

In HOMER documentation, the word system refers to the combinations of technologies and components of a power generation system. The terms system type and system configuration are described below.

System Type

A system type is a combination of technologies. For example, wind/diesel/battery describes a system type that includes wind turbines, diesel generators, and batteries.

System Configuration

A system configuration is a combination of particular numbers and sizes of components that you configure on the Design page. For example, a system with a generic 10 kW wind turbine, 15 kW diesel generator, 32 batteries and a 6 kW inverter describes a configuration of the wind/diesel/battery system type. The same system type with 48 batteries is a different system configuration.

HOMER simulates system configurations. As it searches for the optimal system type, HOMER typically evaluates hundreds or thousands of system configurations. HOMER displays a list of system configurations on the Results page. The Sensitivity Cases table shows a list of the best feasible systems for each sensitivity case entered. Click a sensitivity case entry to view all feasible systems for that case in the lower, Optimization Results table.

A system configuration can also be defined by dispatch strategy. For example, a system consisting of a generic 10 kW wind turbine, 15 kW diesel, 32 batteries, and an inverter can have two configurations: one with a load following dispatch strategy, and another with a cycle charging dispatch strategy.