While the user interface is relatively self-explanatory, we outline below the key features and how to use them.
The Quartz Solar UI consists currently of three views: the PV Forecast view, the Sites view, and the Delta View.
If you are not currently a Sites user, you will not have any sites/forecast in this view.
The PV Forecast and Delta views have a map view of PV generation on the right, accompanied on the left by graphs of generation over time.
There are two main forecasts we offer through the Quartz platform: National and GSP-level.
Both of these forecasts are trained on 2 NWP sources (ECMWF IFS and Met Office UKV) and satellite imagery (EUMETSAT), and provided with the most up-to-date data from these sources at runtime.
The map on the right displays a heatmap of the PV generation forecast for the time currently selected. Each region, or Grid Supply Point (GSP), displays the forecast for that GSP. The heatmap intensity displays either the yield of the GSP - expressed as a % of the total installed capacity or the absolute PV power output, expressed in MW. When viewing the absolute PV power output, you will notice the regions which enjoy the highest levels of installed capacity, such as Norfolk and Cornwall, feature strongly. The figure displayed can be toggled by the user using the MW / % / Capacity switch, which defaults to yield (MW) when the page is loaded.
The map is moveable and zoom-able using click-and-drag and the mouse wheel respectively. If you click on an individual GSP region, a detailed graph view for the GSP is displayed on the left below the National PV Forecast Graph Display. Clicking on the GSP again closes the detailed view.
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Hold the Shift ⇧ key and click regions on the map to select (or deselect) multiple regions at the same time.
This will show aggregated data on the bottom sub-region chart on the left of the page.
N.B. N-hour forecasts currently aren’t available during multi-selection, or with DNO aggregation. We hope to introduce this later after some backend rejigging, so watch this space.
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