The Variant Comparison Report—an Economic and Ecological Report
The Variant comparison report assesses the economic and ecological results of the simulations and optimizations and compares the variants of a Variant comparison node. The report contains text, tables, and graphics. It is saved as a Word document in DOCX format.
Information about the other reports output by TOP-Energy you can find in the article about generating reports. General information about the export of data from TOP-Energy is available in the linked article.
Generating a Variant Comparison Report
Select 
Generate variant comparison report via the 
Word split button in the Export group of the Project ribbon (see the following figure).
Alternatively, select 
Generate report → Generate variant comparison report in the context menu of any element in the Project explorer (right click). It is irrelevant which element is currently selected in the Project explorer. If there are several Variant comparison nodes in the project, a Variant comparison report can be generated for each individual Variant comparison node using the menu entries.
First select the location for the file, then the report is generated. A dialog box reports successful saving and offers the option to open the report (see the following figure).
Contents and Structure
The Variant comparison report is clearly structured by headings. It is equipped with a table of contents and an appendix. The following figure shows an example of the table of contents of a fuel comparison.
Read more about the content and structure of the Variant comparison report below.
Points 1 and 2: Overview of the Variants from an Economic and Ecological Point of View
The Variant comparison report first provides an overview of the variants – first from an economic (point 1) and then from an ecological point of view (point 2). After a brief introduction, the economic key data (investment costs, earnings (EBITDA, EBIT, and EAT), cash flow, percentage savings, net present value, accumulated value, dynamic payback period, and internal rate of return) and the ecological key data (CO2 emissions and primary energy consumption as well as the savings compared to the reference case) are listed in a table. The figures in the following slider show the overview tables 1 and 2 from the Variant comparison report of a fuel comparison as examples.
Point 3: Detailed Description of the Individual Variants
Detailed descriptions of the individual variants according to economic aspects follow under point 3 (see the first illustration in the following slider).
The investment costs, the term of depreciation, and the annual depreciation are described and clearly listed in a table. The energy costs are shown in detail in the text and in a pie chart. The individual energy costs of the respective variant are compared with the reference case in a bar chart.
The revenues, costs, profits, taxes, and other key data for the profitability assessment are described and presented in a table in comparison to the reference case. The operating costs and operating hours of the components for which this information is available are broken down in a table. Two line charts show the development of the net present value and of the cash flow in the period under review.
After examining each individual variant, the variants are compared from an economic point of view (see the second figure in the following slider). For this purpose, column diagrams show the costs of the energy flows, the revenues from the energy flows, the operating costs, and the operating revenues, the earnings after tax (EAT), and the cash flow, the investment costs, the net present value, and the accumulated value.
Points 4 and 5: Comparison and Evaluation from an Ecological Point of View
The comparison of the variants is continued with point 4 from an ecological point of view. There, column diagrams are dedicated to CO2 emissions and primary energy consumption (see the following figure).
The ecological evaluation of the individual variants in comparison to the reference case takes place under point 5. The text is supplemented by bar graphs on CO2 emissions and primary energy consumption (see the figure below).
The appendix contains information on the basic setting of time and boundary conditions of stakeholders (calculatory interest rate and corporation tax rate, see the following figure).
Setting the Output Format of the Images
Settings for chart elements can be made in the options menu for Forms under Extras → Advanced settings. Here you can select the Output format of pictures for reports. The default is emf. The alternative is bmp (see the following figure).
Template
The template for the Variant comparison report eValuate-Report-Template_EN.dotm is typically located in the user directory:
C:\program files\TOP-Energy$version$\program\modules\evaluate\ini.
On this basis, you can create your own template by adapting the logo and formatting. No changes may be made to the macro.
You can change and customize everything before the table of contents as well as the header and footer. You can also insert as many pages as you want before the table of contents.
Step by step guide
Instead of storing the new individualized template in the C:\program files\TOP-Energy$version$\program\modules\evaluate\ini folder, you can alternatively save it in any location and refer to it in the Options for report (in the Advanced settings → Options) under Variant comparison: Select the option Use my word-report-template and enter the path to the custom Word report template by clicking on the 3 dots on the right side (see the following figure).
