PVsyst standard format

The PVsyst standard format proposes a framework for preparing your hourly or subhourly weather data in a simple way in EXCEL (as a CSV file).

Like with the tool Import Custom Weather data files, you can import hourly or subhourly Weather data in virtually any text format, as far as you have the data of one time step on one line.

CSV File preparation

If you have access to reliable and clean data in hourly or subhourly values, you can manage them in a spreadsheet (like EXCEL) according to the format specified below, so that they can be imported directly into PVsyst with the tool Known Format. This format is also suited for the import of some other profiles as time-series, like a load profile, varying electricity tariffs along the year, or others in PVsyst.

Once your data has been prepared with EXCEL, you have to save it as a CSV (DOS) file.

The advantage of the PVsyst standard format is the simplification of the import process, as the Geographical site information is directly written in the file. But this tool doesn't include all securities and error recoveries present in the "Import Custom Weather data file" tool. It is only suited for clean data.

Templates

The PVsyst8.0_Data/Templates folder contains 2 examples of the PVsyst standard weather format csv files:

• METEO_PVsyst_Standard_Geneva_GHI.CSV using GHI and DHI as input (recommended)
• METEO_PVsyst_Standard_Geneva_GPI.CSV using POA irradiance

If the files are missing, please reload as described here.

Description of the PVsyst Standard format

CSV file

"Comma Separated Values". Should be easily managed in EXCEL, saved as "CSV(DOS)" file format.

1. Separator = semicolon or comma (depending on the Windows international settings),
2. Decimal character should be a dot.

HEADER

All header and comment lines begin by #
The header may have as many comment lines as desired.

First line: serves as a file format identifier. It accepts one of two tags, indicating whether the file contains Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data or Time series data.

#TMY data
or
#Weather time series data

#TMY hourly data
or
#Meteo data hourly

The basic general information required for PVsyst in the header should have the form:

• First cell: #Tag
• Second cell: Value
• Remaining cells are not used by the parser.

The mandatory fields are :

Also mandatory when importing PAO data : | Tag | Value | Comments | | --- | --- | --- | | #Plane Tilt; | 30 | Plane tilt in degrees. | | #Plane Azim; | 0 | Plane azimuth in degrees (PVsyst azimuth convention). |

You may sometimes have to define additional fields, according to the data specificities :

These tagged lines may appear in any order in the header.

You can add any additional comment defining your product, beginning by #.

(): For example UT, UT+5, UT-3... (UT stands for Universal Time).
(*): Can not exceed the limit specified by the Hidden parameter 'Maximum allowed time shift in Weather data' (category Miscellaneous : Weather data, Simulation)

DATA

1. First line includes column headers (without # as first character).
2. Second line mentions units (without # as first character). Should be "W/m2" or "MJ/m2", "deg.C" or "m/s"
3. Third line and next hold data

Dates: because in EXCEL, the date format may differ according to the Windows international settings, we require one column for each element of date. Columns with the following headers are required:

• Year (Optional)
• Month
• Day
• Hour
• Minute (Optional)

The time is the beginning of the data interval, the solar geometry will be computed at the middle of the interval.

Synthetic data, TMY: If the data are generic, i.e. not really measured at a specified date, the year should be 1990 or 2059 (standard indicator in PVsyst)

Mandatory data (column titles, in any order):

Or if GHI is not available:

Additional data (optional, in any order)

These column headers are "official" identifiers for PVsyst. They should be used as such. Other columns with different data or header names may be defined, but will not be used by PVsyst.

Leap years:

• Real data (with real year definition) should include 29th February when necessary.
• Averaged data (with no specific year definition, i.e. 1990 or 2059) should never define 29th February.

In PVsyst, data which are not really measured (averaged months, synthetic generation) are marked with Year = 1990 or 2059.

Missing data:

The PVsyst simulation requires complete data (for relevant monthly or yearly sums).

See missing data handling for details on how missing values are processed.

Night data:

The night data are mandatory. For a full year of data, PVsyst expects 8760 (8784 for leap years) lines for a 60mn timestep.

Example: