Understanding the financial projection
This guide applies to easy-pv.ie and easy-pv.co.uk versions of Easy PV. The information provided here may not be accurate for easy-pv.com.
Table of contents
Summary info
- Generation: This is the total generation across the projection period, factoring in the degradation rate. The default degradation rate is 0.5%.
- Payback: This is the year that the system has paid for itself: when the cumulative costs equal the cumulative benefits.
- Internal Rate of Return:
- Net Present Value: This is the difference between cumulative benefits and costs of the system across the projection period, both factoring in discount
rate.rate.
These figures are also given on the payment option pages of the customer proposal.
Income and savings
- Electricity savings: this is how much we project the customer will be able to save now they will not be spending this on their electricity bill, using the annual generation and import tariff (using the customers old tariff if this has been configured),
- Export benefits: this is how much we project that the customer will be able to earn from exporting unused electricity to the grid.
- Additional savings: this models any additional savings that aren't factored into the MCS or Easy PV model.
Note that if you have forced battery charging and discharging configured, you may find the electricity savings are negative. Provided the total income and savings is still greater than how much they were spending on electricity, this is not a problem.
Loan and running costs
The loan and running cost graphs will show any costs that they will incur in the first year and beyond.
If you have set up a finance option, you can select this from the right side bar to see the impact this has on the projection.
Bottom line
This section shows the year by year costs (red) and benefits (green) of the system, including any income, savings, running costs and finance payments. These will be plotted against each other - where the costs equal the benefits gives the payback period.
Discount rates A discount rate is a means of determining the current value of something (like income or savings from a PV system) that you'll receive in the future. It is a reflection of the fact that money received now is worth more than money received in the future. The default discount rate used in Easy PV is 4%, you can set this to 0% in the project financial settings and your financial defaults if you would not like discount rate to be factored into your calculations.
If you have any additional questions about the financial task, take a look at our guide on using the financial task and our financial FAQs or reach out at help@easy-pv.co.uk or help@easy-pv.ie.