Maintenance Cost
The cost of maintaining one unit of a Resource in its Calibration Period. More generally, the cost for a year or a quarter or a month according to the Cost Period input. Unlike Operations Cost, Maintenance Cost is not affected by the Resource utilisation, i.e., it is charged even if the Resource is not used.
For a consumable resource, maintenance cost is the cost of using one unit, rounded up to a full unit, and generated in the period in which the capacity is installed.
Default: 0.0.
Maintenance Cost Trend
This is applied to the calibration value you set for Maintenance Cost in the Resource/Costs dialog.
Default: Constant {1.0}.
Make Slack
A choice governing how capacity should be made slack when either service demand falls or capacity is churned to another resource:
Even: capacity is made slack evenly across all installed ages of the resource.
Oldest: the oldest capacity is made slack first.
Newest: the newest capacity is made slack first.
Default: Even.
Mapping (1)
The relative proportions in which Resources are used to satisfy incremental demand for Function capacity from a Service or a Transformation.
These proportions can be changed over time to model technological advances, but must sum to one (or zero) in each year.
Default: 1.0.
Mapping (2)
A user-defined Mapping which defines a non-linear relationship between the Input of an Input–Output Mapping Transformation and its Output. The Mapping is defined very much like a time-series input, except that it is a function of the Input rather than time.
Default: Constant {0.0}.
Mapping (3)
When borrowing incrementally from a number of facilities, this input defines what share of the incremental borrowing the current debt facility should satisfy.
Default: Constant {0.0}.
Market Segment
The name of a Market Segment, selected from a list.
Note: these relationships are easily defined by dragging between the icons for the respective model elements.
Default: <none>.
Max Change
The maximum proportional change in a tariff permitted between one year and the next. The factor 1 allows 100% change.
It is possible to construct a model in which feedback will cause demand and tariffs to oscillate. The circumstances in which this may occur are where elasticity is high, the charge per connection depends on demand, and the Initial Cost Dependent Tariff is very different from the tariff calculated from feedback. To control the instability, you must either correct the Initial Cost Dependent Tariff or specify a Max Change.
Default: Constant {999.0}. No effective constraint.
Max. Age of Installed Units
The number of years for which a resource has been installed before the model run begins, which should not exceed the Physical Lifetime.
Note: pre-run installation needs to be enabled (Pre-Run Installation = Yes within the Data/Other Details dialog) for this input to work. This input is disregarded if the global input Pre-Run Installation = No.
Default: –1. A special value meaning one Physical Lifetime.
Maximum Credit
Defines the credit limit.
Default: 0.0 (which means that no limit is applied).
Maximum Utilisation
Limits the utilisation of a Resource and guarantees a complementary proportion of slack capacity. More units are installed than would be required to satisfy a certain level of demand, so that the actual utilisation does not exceed this limit.
Default: Constant {1.0}. Resource units can be utilised to their full capacity.
Minimum Slack Capacity
Brings forward the threshold for when a new Resource is installed and effectively limits the utilisation of the last unit installed by reserving the stated slack capacity. More units are installed than would be required to satisfy a certain level of demand, so that the slack capacity remains in excess of the required amount.
Note: if used in conjunction with Maximum Utilisation, then Minimum Slack Capacity will have no effect unless it is greater than the utilisation overhead already reserved for all units.
Default: Constant {0.0}. The next Resource unit is not installed until existing capacity is full (or exceeds a given Maximum Utilisation limit).
Model Run Length
The number of years for which model results are calculated, measured in years from the Model Start Date. There is no specific limit on the length of the model run, other than the disk space required to save the results. However, there is probably little point modelling scenarios beyond a certain time span.
Default: 10. From Model Start Date to year ten inclusive.
Model Start Date
The date when the model run begins.
Either a calendar year, e.g., 1999 (implying 1 Jan 1999), or a fully-qualified date if you want to model in financial years, e.g., 5 Apr 2001.
Default: Y1.
Monte Carlo Factor
For the Monte Carlo deployment distribution only: one over the number of extra units required per site, in addition to the minimum necessary to meet demand.
Default: 2.0. The extra slack capacity installed corresponds to an average of half a unit at each site.
Multiplier (1)
An amount which multiplies the previous year’s value in each year. A value of 1.05 represents 5% annual growth, while a value of 0.95 represents a 5% decline. The Multiplier parameter must be positive, and no greater than 2.
For a Floor, the Multiplier indicates how fast the curve converges to the specified Floor. A lower value will create a steep decline towards the Floor in the early years.
Default: 1.0.
Multiplier (2)
Multiplies the Input of a Transformation to calculate its Output.
Default: Constant {1.0}.
Multiplier Period
Defines a reference period for the Multiplier input and indicates how it should be scaled in proportion to the length of the current period for calculation.
Default: Year.