ESCO Site Configurator

Site Identity

S/N

Site ID

Country

Region

Zone

Latitude

Longitude

Elevation (m)

Solar Yield Data

Using your own proxy? (optional)

A server-side proxy avoids browser security blocks. Endpoint should accept ?lat=&lon= and return PVGIS JSON.

Annual avg (kWh/kWp/day)

Best month (kWh/kWp/day)

Worst month (kWh/kWp/day)

System Loss (%) ?Total solar system losses (soiling, wiring, temperature) fed to PVGIS. Default 18% for Chad. PVGIS already models temperature, so values above ~22% over-derate the yield. — used for PVGIS fetch

Classification

Site Type

Priority ?Service tier (Platinum/Gold/Silver/Bronze). Affects fuel-tank autonomy (days between deliveries). Does NOT set battery backup hours directly — enter the required backup in "Emergency Backup (hrs)" below, which should already reflect priority and travel time to site.

Grid *

Sharing tenants ?How many operators share this site beyond you. Drives the number of DCDB distribution units (one per client = you + each tenant).

Indoor / Outdoor

Area Type

Customer Equipment

🔋 Batteries on site

Battery type ?The battery model and capacity. 200Ah units store more per unit; 100Ah are smaller. All are 48V wired in parallel.

Existing batteries on site

Optimization Goal ?How to balance build cost vs running cost. Balanced = lowest total cost over asset life. Min GE Runtime = more solar/battery to cut fuel. Min CAPEX = leaner build, generator runs more.

⚖ Balanced 🍃 Min GE Runtime 💰 Min CAPEX

Balanced: reasonable solar + battery, GE as backup.

Site Access ?How easy the site is to reach. Affects battery backup sizing — harder-to-reach sites get more autonomy so technicians visit less often.

Load Parameters

Avg. Survey Load (kW) ?The load estimated during the site survey. Used for sizing only if no RMS measurement is available.

Avg. RMS Load (kW) ?The measured average load after the site is cut over to the new system. This is the PRIMARY sizing driver — it overrides survey and client estimates when available.

Avg. Total Load (kW) *

Site Parameters

Customer

Solar Space (m²) ?Available area for solar panels. Limits the array size. Tick "Unlimited" for sites with no space constraint (e.g. ground-mount with open land).* Unlimited space

Site Area (m²)

Technician Base (city/coords)

Round Trip (km) ?Distance for a technician round-trip from base to site. Drives maintenance trip costs and influences battery backup sizing. Use "Calc" to compute from coordinates.

Emergency Backup (hrs) ?Minimum hours the batteries must power the site with no solar or generator — a hard floor for critical backup.*

Consider solar-only (no generator)? ?If checked, the optimizer also evaluates a generator-less design (solar + battery only) as a genuine competing candidate, and picks it if it beats the generator-equipped design on total cost. A no-generator design must survive every simulated day with zero unmet load — no blackouts allowed. Yes, evaluate a solar-only alternative

Min autonomy for solar-only design (hrs) ?Battery-only backup target used ONLY when evaluating the no-generator alternative — typically 48-72h, since there's no generator to fall back on. Separate from Emergency Backup (hrs), which applies when a generator is present.

Access Issues

Financials

Fuel Price (USD/L) *

Monthly Revenue (USD) ?The fixed monthly fee the operator pays you for this site. Drives the ROI, payback, and EBITDA calculations.

Min. EBITDA (USD) ?Optional target for monthly operating profit (revenue − running cost). The tool flags whether the configuration meets it — it does not change the build.

Target Payback (mo) ?Optional. The number of months you want to recover the build cost. Works with "Auto-optimize" below. Auto-optimize config ?When ticked with a target payback, the tool searches configurations to find the cheapest one that hits your payback goal — without dropping below safe reliability limits.

Planning Horizon (years) ?How many years to count running costs (fuel) when deciding the optimal mix of solar, battery, and generator. This is the expected service life of the system at this site — NOT a payback goal. A longer horizon justifies more solar (it has more years to save fuel); a shorter one favours a leaner build. Default 5 years.

Rectifier Redundancy ?N+1 redundancy adds one spare rectifier module so a single module failure does not cut site capacity. Standard telecom practice; costs ~$225/site. Recommended for unattended sites. N+1 (one spare module)

Discount rate / WACC (%) ?ASSUMPTION — pending CTO confirmation. A dollar of future fuel/O&M cost is worth less than a dollar of CAPEX spent today; this rate converts future recurring costs to present value. Default 10% is a placeholder, not a confirmed ESCO financing rate. Set to 0 to disable discounting entirely (matches the previous undiscounted behavior).

Fuel/electricity price escalation (%/yr) ?ASSUMPTION — pending CTO confirmation. Expected annual increase in delivered diesel and grid electricity price, applied on top of (not instead of) the discount rate — these are different variables. Default 3%/yr is a placeholder. Set to 0 for flat nominal pricing.

Cost-model assumptions & sensitivity (advanced — defaults are estimates, verify with finance)

These price the real costs of a larger solar array and of remote fuel, so the optimizer doesn't need an artificial curtailment cap. Adjust to your operation; the sensitivity table below shows how robust the recommendation is.

Fuel logistics multiplier ?Effective delivered diesel cost = pump price × this multiplier. Captures truck delivery, security escort, theft/shrinkage, and emergency dispatch to remote sites. Rural telecom fuel often costs 2–3× pump price delivered. 1.0 = pump price only.

Extra civil per panel (USD) ?INCREMENTAL civil/foundation cost per panel NOT already in the CAPEX structure line items (e.g. extra earthworks for a larger field). Mounting structure and install materials are ALREADY counted in Equipment CAPEX, so default is $0 to avoid double-counting. Raise only if your CAPEX structure cost understates large arrays.

Security/fencing per panel (USD) ?One-time share of fenced-compound expansion and theft-deterrence per added panel. Default $10/panel is an estimate.

Annual O&M per panel (USD/yr) ?Recurring per-panel cost: cleaning, inspection, amortised theft/insurance. Default $8/panel/yr is an estimate. This scales with the planning horizon.

Show sensitivity table (conservative / expected / harsh-rural)

Fill in the site parameters
and click Generate