Product Wiki

The energy-producing entity, e.g., a wind turbine or inverter group. Units have master data such as the unit type, peak power or nominal power. They are active in between their commissioning and decommissioning date.

An asset is a set of units composing a (wind or solar) farm. Assets have master data such as technology, country, time zone, nominal power, peak power, data connector type, or local currency.

Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) hold a set of assets. Depending on the holding structure of the client’s portfolio, assets can be grouped under SPVs and SPVs can be grouped based on the various factors like Fund structure, region, etc. This can be administered through Ampero Admin Tool. Note that oftentimes SPVs hold a single asset, in which case the specific names might be used interchangeably.

Clients can set up different budgets (e.g., P50, P75) that are similar from a structural perspective but differ in the underlying assumptions. Each alternative is considered a budget version.

This provides clients the flexibility to load forecasts (created out of quarterly forecasting processes throughout the year) as a different Budget Version, enabling a more precise Actuals vs Expectation analysis.

“Base Budget” is considered to be the default budget version and any further version can also be created through the Ampero Admin Tool.

COD refers to real-time or near-real-time information (10-min data for wind and 15-min data for solar) collected from the connector. While data may be sourced from a variety of systems, it is limited to one source per asset, and the connector operates on a daily cycle.

Ampero has developed connectors compatible with several SCADA systems and monitoring software, including Bazefield, Breeze, Be4vision, Locus, Rotorsoft, and Vestas Online Business. Some of the COD parameters collected through the connector depending on data availability are shown below:

• Irradiation, Windspeed
• Power
• Azimuth, Wind Direction
• Speed- Rotor, Generator
• Pitch Angle
• Temperatures- Ambient, Module, Nacelle, Gearbox, Gear Oil, Generator, Transformer

Budgeted values for P&L, balance sheet and production for the whole financial year from the client.

Through the Ampero Admin tool, financial budgets are added on a monthly granularity for each SPV while production budgets are also added on a monthly granularity for each asset. Various budget data can be incorporated as distinct budget versions.

1. P&L Actuals
Confirmed financial data for the Profit & Loss accounts. Account movements are added manually on a monthly granularity for each SPV through the Ampero Admin Tool.

2. Balance Sheet Actuals
Confirmed financial data for the balance sheet accounts. Along with account movements for each month, opening balances of the financial year for each SPV are also uploaded manually through the Ampero Admin Tool.

3. Production Actual
The actual production is defined as the production output in kWh. Depending on data availability, it is based on Net or Gross Production.

• Net Production
  The actual, metered production volume. Data per asset per month delivered by the customer (e.g., based on the grid-provider’s reverse invoice) and ingested manually via Ampero Admin Tool
• Gross Production
  The production volume as recorded by SCADA/monitoring system. Data is retrieved through a connector that interfaces with the source system. This system collects data programmatically on a daily basis for each unit within an asset.

Aggregated per SPV on a monthly basis, Actual Price is calculated as the ratio of Revenue Actual to Actual Production.

Aggregated per SPV on a monthly basis, Budget Price is calculated as the ratio of Revenue Budget to the Budget Production.

Since our client’s assets are located in various countries, the financial data can also be in the local currencies. The currency exchange rate data from European Central Bank (ECB) is used to calculate between the different currency to show in Ampero.

Estimates are calculated for the historic time-period where the financial actuals are not yet available. In other words, Estimates are calculated to bridge the gap from the last available account movement on until yesterday. Calculations are made per SPV per month and aggregated for the whole time-period.

1. Budget-based Estimate

For all the P&L KPIs, we calculate the estimates from the corresponding monthly budgets (Exception: Revenue Estimates. See pt 2)

2. Production-based Estimate

Only for the calculation of Revenue Estimates, actual production is used when available. For the historic time periods where financial actuals are not yet available but Actual Production is available, Revenue Estimates are calculated per SPV per month with the formula,

Power Potential [kW] represents the highest power achievable for a given unit during a historical period, considering the environmental conditions (such as wind speed and irradiation) at a specific moment.

The Machine Learning (ML) models for calculating power potential are developed using data from the first year of a unit’s operation. It is computed on a 10/15-minute interval for each unit.

Production Potential is calculated per unit on a daily basis and aggregated over the selected time period. There are three parts to it as described below.

1. Thereof Validated:
This gives the best available estimate of the potential production of the unit. It is calculated by aggregating 10/15 minute power potential values for each day.

2. Thereof Unvalidated:
If generating an estimate for potential on specific days within a month is not feasible (e.g., weather data not available from the connector), a proportional amount of the monthly budgeted production value is used instead.

3. Thereof Forecast:
For the future periods, budget production is used.

This is the maximum revenue that could have been made, if the unit had produced as much as the weather conditions allowed. This represents an adjusted Budget Revenue due to the higher/lower weather conditions. Also calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the time period, Revenue Potential is calculated as,

Weather Deviation [MWh] indicates the production loss or gain due to the weather factors, and is calculated by the difference of the production budget and the production potential. It is calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio.

Performance Deviation [MWh] indicates the production loss due to the performance of the power generators, and is calculated by the difference between Production Potential and Gross Production. It is calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio.

Gross Net Deviation [MWh] is the difference between the Gross and Net Production. It is calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio.

The energetic availability [%] represents the proportion of energy produced in relation to the theoretical production, if the unit had always been operational during the observed period. The energetic availability is calculated based on the 10/15-Minute power data, considering all scheduled and unscheduled downtimes as a loss in availability.

The Weather Deviation represents the revenue in EUR that could not be achieved due to weather conditions differing from the budgeted expectations. Calculated monthly per SPV (as budget price varies each month) and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio,

This indicates the portion of the deviation between the Revenue Forecast and the Revenue Potential attributable to the asset’s technical performance. Also calculated monthly per SPV (as budget price varies each month) and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio as follows,

Volume Deviation is the sum of both production related deviations. Calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio as follows,

While Volume Deviation covers the production related deviations to the revenue budget, Price Deviation aims to capture the difference in the actual and budget price. Calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio as follows,

It is a measure of various P&L KPIs as a percentage of their revenue.

a. [KPI] Budget Deviation

The [KPI] Forecast in comparison to the Budget in absolute terms.

b. Potential Deviation

Potential Deviation [EUR] is given by the difference between Actual Production and Production Potential. It is calculated monthly per SPV and aggregated over the selected time-period and portfolio.

a. Numerical

1. Budget Achievement

It is the [KPI] Forecast as a percentage of the [KPI] Budget. 

2. Potential Achievement

It is the Gross or Actual Production as a percentage of the Production Potential.

b. Categorical

The following categories are used to classify Budget Achievement in Ampero:

1. On Budget
>97% of the corresponding budget

2. Minor Gap
Between 90 <= 97% of the corresponding budget

3. Major Gap
< 90% of the corresponding budget 

Valid for all P&L KPIs, [KPI] per MWh is used to benchmark various SPVs in the portfolio. Calculated per SPV per month and aggregated as follows,

Valid for all P&L KPIs, [KPI] per MW is used to Benchmark various SPVs in the portfolio. Please note that the capacity MW considers only the active units available each month. It is calculated per SPV per month and aggregated as follows,