How the Variant Evaluation Works
Each variant is created in an 
Variant analysis module node, which displays the economic, environmental, and energy data of a variant. At least one Simulation node must be subordinated to the Variant analysis node. The component data and their linkage (scheme) are stored in this Simulation node, and the simulation is executed there. The data determined in the simulation are displayed by the Variant analysis module. They are passed on to the Variant comparison module node in which this variant is listed and compared with other variants there.
Creating Variant Comparison Nodes
You create an Variant analysis node 
with the button 
Variant in the Home ribbon in the Add to project group or in the Project explorer by right-clicking on the 
eProject node and selecting New → 
Variant analysis: Variant in the context menu.
If you drag an Simulation node 
onto an Variant analysis node , the Simulation node is moved under the Variant analysis node.
If there are several Simulation nodes under one Variant analysis node, the economic and ecological results of the Simulation nodes are added together and output as totals in the higher-level Variant analysis module.
For good recognition of the variants, the Variant analysis nodes should be given meaningful names before executing the comparison with Variant comparison. In the context menu of the Variant analysis node in the Project explorer there is the command 
Rename.
Defining Support Years in the Scenario Manager
The scenario manager is used to include support years into the calculation.
Economic Data
The Economy sub-tab is under the Start year tab (when using the scenario manager, also under each Support year tab). It contains the costs and revenues of the energy system variant (see the following figure).
Using Stakeholders
The economic analysis in Variant analysis and Variant comparison can be related to different Stakeholders. You create these actors as components in the Simulation nodes for each variant. The economic data can then be displayed related to each stakeholder individually or as a standard view without stakeholders (see following figure).
Ecological Data
Under the Ecology tab, the ecological analysis of the variant opens (see following figure).
Energy Balance Data
Under the tab Energy balance you find the energetic analysis of the variant (see the following figure).
