Summary table columns

The Layout & Energy Summary is the results table under the plot. It carries one row per plant — one per plant boundary in your file — plus a TOTAL row that aggregates every plant. A ⛶ Maximize button on its header opens the table in its own window, which is the only comfortable way to read the right-hand half of it.

The table is shown by default. The Summary switch hides it, and both the diagram and bill-of-materials modes offer Hide Layout & Energy Summary to enlarge the working area.

Screenshot pendinglayout/summary-table.png

Layout and energy summary

What it shows

The summary table after a multi-plot run with energy calculated, scrolled to show as many columns as possible, with the total row visible.

How to get there

Generate a multi-plot layout with cable calculation on, then calculate energy.

How the columns are grouped

The order is fixed and it is not arbitrary — the table reads left to right from the ground, through what was placed on it, to what it will generate. Knowing the blocks is faster than counting columns when you scroll right.

Column reference

Fixed order, left to right. Rows marked with a mode are the conditional ones — each has its own section below.

Three columns that are misread more often than the rest

Plant Area (Acres) is the gross boundary area. It is the area enclosed by the whole boundary polygon, taken before the perimeter road setback — not the usable area the tables are placed in. So it does not fall as exclusions grow: add an obstruction, tighten the slope limits or widen the perimeter road and the capacity drops while this column stays exactly where it was. It is the site's area, not the array's.

AC(MWac) and InvCap(MW) are two different capacities. InvCap(MW) is the installed nameplate — one inverter's nominal AC power multiplied by the number of inverters the layout placed. AC(MWac) is the AC capacity fed into the capacity simulation, and with no simulation run it falls back to the installed figure, so the two columns read the same. They diverge only once a target AC capacity has been set, which makes the pair a quick read on whether the plant came out at the capacity it was sized for. See Simulation with AC capacity.

25yrP50(MWh) does not report 25 years. The header text is fixed, whatever you set. The figure under it is the cumulative energy over years 1 to Plant lifetime, at the first exceedance probability. Plant lifetime ships at 30 years, so on shipped settings a column headed "25yr" carries a 30-year total, and raising or lowering the lifetime moves the figure while the header stands still. The P50 in the header is fixed in the same way, even though the probability itself is yours to set.

Columns renamed by the mounting type

Three headers carry a different word in a tracker design. The position in the table does not move, so a column count is the same either way.

Inverter columns by electrical mode

The block after ICR is a different set of columns in each electrical mode, not the same columns relabelled. String mode has two; central mode has four, because the boxes and the inverters they feed are counted separately.

Comparing a string design against a central design therefore means comparing different columns, not the same column twice. Read DC(MWp), ICR and the cable columns instead — those are common to both.

The second cable column

The first cable column is StrDC(m) in both modes: the string DC run out of the tables. The second one differs, because the two topologies do a different thing next.

Because one is counted once and the other twice, the two figures are not comparable as a cable quantity even on the same plant.

The three probability columns

The three headers are built from the exceedance probabilities you set, not fixed. On the shipped defaults of 50 %, 75 % and 90 % they read P50Yr1(MWh), P75Yr1(MWh) and P90Yr1(MWh). Change any of the three fields and the header changes with it.

All three are year-one energy in MWh. The lifetime column at the far right is the exception in both respects: its header is fixed rather than built from your settings, and its figure is a cumulative total at the first probability rather than a year-one figure. How the figures are derived, and what combined uncertainty does to them, is on Lifetime and P-values.

Reading the table

Three conventions, and they apply everywhere in the table.

A trailing asterisk means the value was calculated, not entered. Tilt(°) and Pitch(m) carry a * when the layout derived them from the site latitude rather than taking an override from you. It appears in Fixed Tilt only. No asterisk on those two columns means you supplied the number yourself — which is the fastest way to check that an override you ticked actually took effect. See Spacing and tilt.

A dash means not computed. A — is not a zero and not an error. The commonest case is the whole set of cable columns when Calculate Cables for PV Power Plant was left off: the inverter and box counts are still computed and reported, and every cable column reads —. The same applies to MV(m) with no main control room placed, to Piles with no pile pattern defined, and to the energy columns before Calculate Energy has been run.

The TOTAL row aggregates every plant. On a single-plot site it repeats the one row above it. On a multi-plot site it is the figure to quote for the site as a whole — capacity, area, table counts, cable lengths and energy summed across every plant. See Multi-plot sites.

Screenshot pendinglayout/summary-maximized.png

Summary in its own window

What it shows

The maximised summary window with the full column set readable.

How to get there

Click Maximize on the summary header.

What each column needs before it reports anything

A column reads — until the thing it counts has been asked for. If a column is empty and you expected a figure, this is the list to check.

Everything else — areas, counts, capacity, tilt and pitch — is filled in by the layout run itself and needs nothing further.

Where the same figures appear elsewhere

The summary is not the only place these numbers surface, and the other places carry a subset rather than a different calculation.

Conductor length and trench length are not the same

Six columns report a length in metres, and they answer two different questions. Mixing them up over-orders cable or under-digs trench.

The trench figures are the smaller ones, and the gap between the two widens as the plant grows, because more cables share each corridor near the control rooms. Medium-voltage routes in particular are laid out so nearby control rooms merge into one trunk rather than running parallel lines. How each route is chosen is on Cable routing.

Where to go next