Multi-year custom generation profile?

[softwareengineerprogrammer]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I am using a custom generation profile but don't see a way to provide multi-year generation profile data (over the project lifespan)

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to provide a profile that spans the entire project lifetime. Ideally with arbitrary timestep granularity, but annual timestep would probably be acceptable.

Describe alternatives you've considered

1. Currently I am passing in the average generation over the project lifetime as the nameplate capacity. This coarse approximation is reasonable under some scenarios but too crude for others where there is significant variation in generation over project lifetime
2. It seems like I could coarsely approximate some scenarios by specifying Annual System losses: . However this wouldn't be appropriate for scenarios where production falls for some years and then rises again i.e. geothermal drawdown + redrilling.
3. This answer on the SAM forums from 2019 seems to imply that what I'm trying to do isn't directly supported. My interpretation of the partial workaround to "run a sequence of one-year simulations to generate output over a multi-year period" is that it wouldn't apply to getting the financial model for the entire project lifespan - but maybe there's a way?

Additional context

Using PySAM

[cpaulgilman]

Thank you for this feature request -- this is something we'd like to do but don't have the resources for at the moment. See NREL/ssc#1300.

[softwareengineerprogrammer]

Thanks @cpaulgilman. I'm assuming subscribing to NREL/ssc#1300 is the best way to get updates about future progress/ETA/resolution?

[cpaulgilman]

Yes, although following this issue (#2069) will also keep you updated on progress. We will assign a milestone when we have resources to work on it, and will close it when the work is finished or if we don't plan to work on it.

[softwareengineerprogrammer]

@cpaulgilman FYI I've figured out a workaround that is suitable for my purposes, at least as far as I can tell. I'm now setting nameplate capacity to max net generation and then providing an annual AC degradation schedule with percentages corresponding to the diff from the max. The corresponding SAM simulation result now reflects my desired custom generation profile with correct annual electricity values and expected effects on revenue/financials.

Can you think of any obvious reasons this might come back to bite me down the line? Given that I am aware of/OK with:

1. Communicating to users that the "degradation" is just a workaround and not actual degradation
2. I assume this theoretically could make integrating TOD factors/dispatchability-related parameters marginally more complex, should we choose to do so down the line - but probably not a concern in light of the fact that these aren't meaningfully supported for Custom Generation as-is anyway