DECIDIX SOFTWARE FOR THE TECHNICAL ECONOMYCAL ASSESSMENT OF ENERGY PROJECTS

Years ago I developed the software Decidix to do feasibility studies for companies in the electrical sector. The objective was to have a tool easy to use by people not skilled in financial mathematics techniques and to people without experience in technical questions which influence in the feasibility of the business, for example the fuel efficiency of a power plant. The focus is on projects of substations and transmission lines as well as power generation with renewables (wind, small hydro, solar, biomass, and biodiesel), nonrenewable fuels (natural gas, coal, oil, nuclear) and s.

People, especially in power utilities, enjoyed this easy tool it and I applied regular courses for hundreds of experts power utilities , oil and gas companies and investors mainly in the renewable energy business field. The tool enable to do from “easy” things like calculating the cost of the energy produced in a power plant up to complex analysis involving trends scenarios and the prioritization of groups of investment projects of different natures.

I decided to make Decidix available as free software. The code is complete and there are no functions blocked or hidden parts. Some instructions for the use are showed in the first screen of the software. As I never had time to do detailed instructions in a Manual I made available the file Methodology with part of the (paid) course I apply about the theme. For people with some knowledge in the concepts of technical economical assessment it will be possible to use the tool

   

See in the next lines the program of an “In Company” 2 days training (in English or Spanish or Portuguese)

ASSESSMENT OF THE FEASIBILITY OF ENERGY PROJECTS (transmission, distribution, generation, cogeneration and others)

Motivation: To assess the feasibility of power and energy projects is a task relatively easy when we have available all the technical and economic data. The problem is that sometimes technical people is not well familiarized with the financial mathematics technics and the economists are not well familiarized with certain technical aspects which can have big influence in the analysis
The analysis shall consider things so diverse as technical and economic data, legislation, trends, tax of failures, efficiencies and, above all, the rules of common sense. If you have a basic knowledge on the technical and economical concepts it is possible to do a quite good analysis of easy and even more complex problems.

In this course, the objective is to present such basic rules in an easy to understand way and to teach how to use the DECIDIX free software to assess the feasibility of different projects.  We show the concepts and different test cases found in the real life. The course is focused in professionals from electrical power utilities, energy companies, equipment manufacturers, research centers, investors and others. The main topics covered are:

• General view of business and projects in the electric and energy sector (purchase and sales of energy, auctions for grants in generation, transmission and distribution, legislation, programs of incentives, risks of the business and others)
• Basic fundaments related to technologies for substations, transmission lines and power plants. This include renewable and nonrenewable energy (small to big hydro power plants, thermal generation, cogeneration, wind, solar, distributed generation, fuel cells). The focus is in the fundaments impacting costs of investments and O&M
• Methodology for the technical - economic analysis of the feasibility of energy projects (using the software DECIDIX)

• Present value mathematics, inflation, real costs variations
• Levelization, Revenue Requirements, Depreciation, Debt, Equity, Discount Tax, Property taxes, Insurances,
•  Investment and operation costs;
• Analysis criteria: Return Tax, Cash flow, Present Value, Expected values, Pay Back
• How to use the Decidix Software
• Sensitivity analysis

CASE STUDIES

• Small Hydroelectric plant, wind, biomass and conventional thermal power plant and hydro
• Power plant inserted in a industrial or commercial process
• Fuel cells x gas turbines
• Environmental costs and externalities calculation methods
• Transmission (lines construction) and distribution projects
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• ADVANCED TOPICS

• Sensitivity analysis with uncertainty and risks;
• How to deal objectively with main variable trends and sceneries
• Prioritization of investment projects groups of different natures considering also the expert previous experience (intelligent techniques to help on decision tasks)

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
During the installation a password will be requested. The password is decidix2012 (type with lowercase letters)
Along the installation only one directory will be created. It is named c://sergiofeitoza . Inside it there will be the files
- Decidix.exe
- some xml files (the data base is here): t_trend.xml , t_cds_Fluxo.xml , cds_sens.xml , t_cds_R1.xml , t_cdsEcon.xml , t_projetos.xml
- perfildec.mlp
- some other few files
- unis000.exe (the uninstall file)

This setup is around 2,6 MB. If you have problems with the installation, please write me explaining the messages received and I will try to help you. In this case please inform the operational system of your computer.

For the use of the software itself I cannot provide “free” technical support. To uninstall Decidix you may use the uninstall file or even simply to delete the directory. Note that all the directory will be deleted including the data base. Please remember the following:
a) When you open the application, you can set the language of the screens to English (default) or Spanish or Portuguese or French.
b) If you stop the mouse over the boxes in the screens there are also some hints / instructions but some of them are not yet translated.
c) This version is complete and there is no function locked. Some functions and features request training to use.

I hope Decidix will be useful to you