Asset settings
Asset settings have a separate navigation menu split into three sections: Project, Components, and Financials, each containing multiple settings pages. This is a structured overview of all available settings.
Project
The Project section contains general information and configuration for your asset.
General
Status
On the top of the General page you can set the operational status of your asset by clicking on the dropdown button. The status can be set to:
- Draft: Experiments and variations of assets used for early evaluation purposes
- Planning: Development-stage assets before COD
- Operation: Post-COD operational assets
- Maintenance: Temporarily offline for maintenance or inspection purposes
Name
You can choose an arbitrary asset name to make it easy to find your asset or group it with other assets. We recommend to align with your team on a fixed naming convention for your assets in the early stages of creating your portfolio on Tensor Cloud.
Tensor features
Enable specific Tensor Cloud features for your asset. Available features include:
- Balancing and trading: Optimize and automate balancing operations and market trading with AI
- Asset management: Investor reporting, portfolio analysis, and SPV financial management
Location
When creating a new asset, the easiest way to specify the location is by clicking the Select on map button. This will open a map where you can click on the approximate location of your asset. The latitude, longitude, location name, grid area and altitude will be automatically filled in.
Make sure to double check the grid area as automatic determination of the grid area is not always possible.
By default, the land are will be automatically calculated from the solar DC kWp capacity with a default value of 10 m²/kWp. You can adjust this value manually if you have more accurate information.
Components
Click the battery and load buttons to turn on/off the respective components. The battery and load settings will appear in the Components section of the left side asset settings navigation bar.
Delete asset
This will permanently delete your asset and make it inaccessible for you and others in your workspace. It will also disassociate the deleted asset from any PPAs, and invalidate all simulation results associated with it.
Simulation
Scenario
Choose the Scenario your asset will operate under. For any newly created asset, this will default to the Default Scenario as defined in the Scenario section of Tensor Cloud.
Assets under different scenarios will 'live' in 'different universes'. Their results will not be comparable and we discourage including them in the same analysis as they might warp the overall view of your portfolio.
Generation
By default, Tensor Cloud automatically calculates the solar generation profile of your asset based on the location, tilt, azimuth, and other technical specifications you provided. You can override this by selecting the Custom option in this section and manually entering the generation profile of your asset.
The custom generation profile consists of total generation for each month of the first year of the asset operation in kWw. You can directly copy and paste the generation profile from Excel or other tools. After year 1, the generation profile will be automatically adjusted based on the degradation rate.
Operation
Location ID
Enter the asset ID issued by the transmission and distribution utility of the Grid Zone your asset is connected to. This field is mandatory when uploading meter data to Tensor Cloud and can also be required for automatic ingestion of monitoring system data.
Grid code
This code is assigned when registering your asset with OCCTO. This is a mandatory field when using the balancing functionality of Tensor Cloud.
Contract classification number 2
This number is assigned by the TSO. This is a mandatory field when using the balancing functionality of Tensor Cloud.
Metadata
These pages contain optional information about your asset that can help you better organize and analyze your portfolio.
Entering company names under Developer, EPC Company and O&M Provider will not give these companies access to any information in your workspace, nor will it inform them that you have associated them with an asset. This fields exist purely to help you better organize your asset portfolio.
Developer
Enter the name of the main asset developer in this optional field to better sort and filter assets in the asset list view, or when analyzing simulation results.
You can manage your list of Developers from the Stakeholders page in the Tensor Cloud workspace settings.
EPC company
Enter the name of your main EPC Company in this optional field to better sort and filter assets in the asset list view, or when analyzing simulation results.
You can manage your list of EPC Companies from the Stakeholders page in the Tensor Cloud workspace settings.
O&M provider
Enter the name of your main O&M Provider in this optional field to better sort and filter assets in the asset list view, or when analyzing simulation results.
You can manage your list of O&M Providers from the Stakeholders page in the Tensor Cloud workspace settings.
METI ID
Enter the asset ID issued by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry upon asset registration.
METI registration ID
Enter the asset registration ID issued by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry upon asset registration. This number is needed to change legal ownership of the asset.
Metering day
Enter the day of the calendar month that the asset meters will be read by the grid operator.
Components
The Components section contains technical specifications for each component of your asset.
Grid
Grid interconnection date
Enter the date when your asset will be connected to the grid. This does not necessarily correspond to the COD date of the solar and battery systems of your asset, as the asset might be connected to the grid before the start of commercial operations. Therefore, this field is not used to determine the start of cash flows in the simulation and will have no impact on simulation results.
Solar
Lifecycle
Set the beginning and end of the operational lifetime of your solar system. The solar system will stop generating electricity at the end of its lifetime. You can define the lifetime either with a start date plus a number of calendar years or by manually entering the start and end date.
When choosing calendar years for determining the solar end of life, the last day of the last year will be used as the underlying end date during asset simulation.
DC Capacity
This is the total nameplate capacity of all solar PV panels of your solar installation. The value cannot be smaller than the AC capacity and cannot be negative.
Although there is no lower or upper limit to the DC capacity, simulation accuracy for systems smaller than 5 kWp is limited.
AC capacity
This is the total nameplate capacity of your solar system inverters. The value cannot be larger than the DC capacity and cannot be negative.
Tilt
This is the angle of horizontal tilt of the solar panels in degrees. The value must be between 0 and 90.
Azimuth
This is the rotation angle of your asset against north in degrees. The value must be between 0 and 360. 0 corresponds to north, 90 to east, 180 to south, and 270 to west.
Module degradation
Specify at which rate the output of your PV panels decreases annually. Degradation is applied on a monthly basis.
PV cell temperature coefficient
Specify how efficient your PV panels are at higher temperatures by changing this value. Defaults to -0.4 percent.
The PV cell temperature coefficient is the parameter needed to calculate losses due to heat above or below 25 degrees celsius, and it usually ranges between -0.29 and -0.5 %/°C. This means that every 10 °C in excess results in a decrease in power of the module by 2,9% to 5%.
Losses
You can specify solar system losses either with a single value that captures all losses, or by specifying the individual losses that make up the total losses.
Total losses
Specify the total amount of electricity lost in the solar system. This value defaults to 8 percent.
Inverter losses
Specify the amount of electricity lost when passing through the inverters. This value defaults to 4 percent, which equals an inverter efficiency of 96%.
Shading losses
Specify the amount of electricity lost due to near shading (e.g., from foliage, buildings or terrain). This value defaults to 3 percent.
Tensor Cloud already includes sophisticated far-shading algorithms in its solar generation calculations. This setting is only for near shading.
Cable losses
Specify the amount of electricity lost when passing through cables on the DC side. This value defaults to 1 percent.
Downtime rate
Set the percentage of hours of the year that the solar PV installation will not generate electricity due to unavoidable circumstances such as scheduled maintenance or lightning strike.
Defaults to 0 percent.
Do not include expected curtailment volume in this setting, as curtailment assumptions are managed under Scenarios.
Battery
Lifecycle
Set the beginning and end of the operational lifetime of your battery system. The battery system will stop charging electricity at the end of its lifetime. You can define the lifetime either with a start date plus a number of calendar years or by manually entering the start and end date.
When choosing calendar years for determining the battery end of life, the last day of the last year will be used as the underlying end date during asset simulation.
Energy capacity
This is the total energy nameplate capacity of your battery storage system in kWh which will be reduced with each battery cycle depending on the degradation rate.
Power capacity
This is the total power nameplate capacity of your battery storage system in kW. This will not be reduced with each battery cycle.
Maximum cycles
This is the number of cycles the battery can undergo before the capacity drops below the OEM warranty threshold.
One cycle is defined as one kWh of battery discharge per kWh of energy capacity.
Roundtrip efficiency
This is the combined efficiency of the battery and battery inverter in percent and defaults to 92 percent.
Degradation
Specify the rate at which the capacity of the battery system decreases with usage. This is expressed as a percentage of the battery nameplate capacity at a given number of cycles.
Battery degradation defaults to 80% of nameplate capacity after 3,000 cycles and 70% after 4,500 cycles.
Try to align this setting with the battery degradation defined in the battery OEM warranty to ensure accurate simulation results.
State of charge limits
Specify the minimum and maximum state of charge allowed when operating the battery both during simulation and physical operation. The battery will not charge or discharge if the state of charge is outside these limits.
For co-located battery systems, during battery operation, the SoC limits are enforced on a best-effort basis. This means that the battery will not charge or discharge if the SoC is outside these limits, but the SoC might still drift outside these limits due to self-discharge and other factors.
Cycle cost
This is an estimate of the cycle cost in JPY/kWh. Operationally, this value determines the minimum required financial return per kWh of energy stored and discharged required for the battery to operate.
The cycle cost should reflect your operational strategy for the battery system. Generally speaking, a lower cycle cost will lead to the battery being used more frequently, while a higher cycle cost will make battery behavior more conservative and reduce the annual number of cycles. Cycle cost take into consideration all cost associated with battery operation, including losses and opportunity costs of discharging solar directly into the grid.
Cycle cost are relevant only for operations and do not affect battery simulation.
Load
Lifecycle
Set the beginning and end of the operational lifetime of the load. The load will stop consuming electricity at the end of its lifetime. You can define the lifetime either with a start date plus a number of calendar years or by manually entering the start and end date.
When choosing calendar years for determining the load end of life, the last day of the last year will be used as the underlying end date during asset simulation.
Load profile
Allows to specify the energy consumption pattern of the load in terms of minimum, maximum, and average demand. By default, this mimmicks an industrial manufacturing load.
As soon as you upload demand actuals for your asset, the load profile will be automatically adjusted to match the actual consumption pattern.
Financials
The Financials section contains all financial settings related to your asset including capital expenditures, operational expenditures, and revenue streams.
CAPEX
The CAPEX page contains all past or upcoming CAPEX cash-out events here. The timing of these payment events will influence IRR calculations.
You can add new CAPEX payments by pressing the Add button on the top right of the CAPEX payment list. To delete CAPEX payments, select them with the checkboxes on the left of the table and press the Delete button in the floating action bar.
Each CAPEX item is configured through a dialog with five tabs: General, Purchase, Disposal, Depreciation, and Tax.
General tab
Account
Select the appropriate financial account code by choosing from the dropdown menu. Choose which component to associate the CAPEX item with. This can be either solar or battery. All CAPEX payments with the same account code will appear together on the SPV financial statements.
Description
Enter a short description of the CAPEX payment. This will help you and your team better understand the purpose of the payment.
If you associate a CAPEX payment with a non-existing asset component, the payment will be ignored.
Purchase tab
Payment date
This is the date of the cash transaction related to the CAPEX item, not the invoice date. Invoice-to-cash is assumed to be EoM + 30 days. You can choose an absolute fixed date or a date relative to grid interconnection, solar COD, battery COD, solar end of life, battery end of life or decommissioning date.
Payments relative to non-existing asset components will not be considered. For example, if you set a payment date relative to battery COD, but the asset does not have a battery, the CAPEX payment will be ignored.
Amount
This can be a relative or an absolute amount in Japanese Yen. For relative amounts, you can choose them to be relative to solar DC kWp, site AC kW, battery energy capacity kWh, or battery power capacity kW.
Prefer relative amounts and dates for CAPEX payments you want to import across a large number of assets.
Consumption tax
Choose the consumption tax rate for the CAPEX payment. Defaults to 10 percent. If set to 0, no consumption tax will be applied.
Disposal tab
The Disposal tab allows you to configure end-of-life asset disposal settings, including when and how the asset will be disposed of.
Disposal date
Specify when the asset component will be disposed of. You can choose an absolute fixed date or a date relative to grid interconnection, solar COD, battery COD, solar end of life, battery end of life or decommissioning date.
Disposal method
Choose between two disposal methods:
- Discard: The asset disposal results in a cost (negative cash flow)
- Sale: The asset disposal results in revenue from selling the asset (positive cash flow)
Disposal amount
Configure the financial impact of the disposal. The amount can be:
- Absolute: Fixed amount in Japanese Yen
- Relative: Amount calculated relative to asset specifications (solar DC kWp, site AC kW, battery energy kWh, battery power kW, or percentage of original purchase price)
Consumption tax
Specify the consumption tax rate applicable to the disposal transaction.
ARO discount rate
Set the Asset Retirement Obligation (ARO) discount rate used for calculating the present value of future disposal costs for financial reporting purposes.
Depreciation tab
Apply depreciation
Choose whether to apply depreciation to the CAPEX payment. If toggled, the CAPEX payment will be depreciated over the asset lifetime.
Depreciation settings affect the SPV financial statements, asset valuation, and residual value. They do not affect asset property taxes, which you can control under the Tax tab.
Useful life
Choose the useful life of the CAPEX payment in years. This is the number of years over which the CAPEX payment will be depreciated.
Method
Choose the depreciation method for the CAPEX payment. You can choose between straight-line, declining balance, and sum-of-years-digits.
Straight-line depreciation evenly allocates an asset's cost over its useful life. It is calculated by subtracting the residual value from the cost and dividing by the useful life in years.
Declining balance depreciation applies a fixed percentage to the asset’s remaining book value each year, resulting in higher depreciation in the early years. It is calculated as (book value × depreciation rate), where the book value decreases each year but never reaches zero.
Sum-of-years-digits depreciation allocates higher depreciation in earlier years by applying a fraction based on the sum of the asset's useful life digits. The depreciation for each year is calculated as (remaining life / sum of years) × (asset cost - residual value), where the sum of years is the total of all years in the asset’s useful life.
Depreciation start date
Choose the start date of the depreciation. This defaults to the COD date of the associated solar system or battery.
Minimum value
Set a minimum value below which the asset will not depreciate further. This acts as a floor value for the depreciated asset.
You can specify the minimum value in two ways:
- Absolute: Fixed minimum value in Japanese Yen
- Purchase price: Minimum value as a percentage of the original purchase price
Residual value
If residual value is turned on, the remaining asset book value after depreciation will be considered as a positive cash flow on the last day of asset operation. This will affect simulation IRRs.
Tax tab
Settings in this tab affect the taxable value of the asset used for calculating property taxes. They do not affect depreciation payments or asset valuation. Note that there are no property taxes on assets with a tax value below 1.5 million JPY.
Apply depreciation
Choose whether to apply depreciation to the taxable value of the CAPEX payment. If toggled, the taxable value of the CAPEX payment will be depreciated over the asset lifetime.
Tax useful life
Choose the useful life of the CAPEX payment in years for tax purposes.
Method
Choose the depreciation method for the taxable value of the CAPEX payment. You can choose between tax straight-line, straight-line, declining balance, and sum-of-years-digits. In line with Japanese tax code, tax straight line depreciation applies a modified depreciation rate of 0.064 for the first year, then 0.127 for any subsequent years.
Tax depreciation start date
Choose the start date of the tax depreciation. This defaults to the COD date of the associated solar system or battery.
Minimum value
Set a minimum taxable value below which the asset will not depreciate further for tax purposes. This acts as a floor value for tax depreciation calculations.
You can specify the minimum value in two ways:
- Absolute: Fixed minimum value in Japanese Yen
- Purchase price: Minimum value as a percentage of the original purchase price
Taxable value
Enter the taxable value of the CAPEX payment in Japanese Yen. This defaults to the CAPEX payment amount but can be customized depending on the valuation of the local tax authorities.
OPEX
The OPEX settings feature allows you to create and manage detailed operational expense configurations for your solar assets. This system provides flexible options for defining recurring and one-time expenses with precise timing, amount calculations, and financial account integration.
Creating expense items
When creating OPEX expense items, you configure the following fields:
Name
Provide a clear name for the expense item that describes its purpose, such as "Annual O&M Contract" or "Inverter Replacement Reserve".
Account
Select the appropriate financial account code for proper categorization in financial statements. Available accounts include standard OPEX categories like O&M, insurance, and asset management.
Cost driver
Choose how the expense relates to your asset components:
- Solar: Expenses directly related to the solar PV system
- Battery: Expenses specific to battery storage components
- Project: General project-level expenses not tied to specific components
Timing
Configure when and how often the expense occurs:
Recurring expenses: For ongoing operational costs that occur multiple times throughout the asset lifecycle. Define start and end dates using flexible date options (exact dates, relative to asset milestones, or simple relations). Configure frequency patterns with monthly or yearly intervals.
One-time expenses: For single occurrence costs such as major equipment replacements. Simply specify the payment date using the same flexible date options.
Amount
Set the expense amount and how it changes over time:
Simple amounts: Fixed amounts that remain constant throughout the payment period.
Changing amounts: Expenses that increase or decrease over time due to inflation, escalation clauses, or other factors. Configure the direction, change amount, change unit (percentage or fixed JPY), and change frequency (annual or monthly).
Consumption tax
Configure the applicable consumption tax rate for the expense item, with the default set to Japan's standard rate.
Revenue
Subsidy schemes
This is the renewable energy subsidy scheme your asset operates under. You can activate feed-in-tariff, feed-in-premium, or choose to have no subsidy at all.
Subsidy rate
This is either the FIT or FIP rate approved for your asset in Japanese Yen.
Subsidy start date
Enter your METI-approved start date for FIP or FIT in these fields. FIP subsidy does not allow start dates before April 1, 2022, and FIT does not allow for start dates before January 1, 2012.
PPA
Here, you can associate your asset with one of the PPAs you have created in the PPA Section of Tensor Cloud. Each asset can only be assigned to a single PPA at any given time.