Skip to content

The Simulator Tool

Jump to bottom
Tony ILLIG edited this page Mar 5, 2026 · 3 revisions

The Simulator/Validator tool is based on Excel. It should run without problems on any version of Excel 2013 or higher. It has been tested on various versions of Windows with different locale settings. The tool has not been tested on iOS. The tool requires that macros be enabled. If you are afraid the tool might have malware (it doesn't), please feel free to download it and test it with VirusTotal or with any other malware checker.

Although the individual sheets in the workbook are protected, none are password protected. The workbook is not protected. You can easily view all the VBA code, either by adding in the Developer tab in Ribbon, or by using Alt-F11.

Getting started

You can populate the tool with your actual Hydro Quebec data first, although it is not required to use the simulator. If you populate the tool with your own data, then you can select an existing Winter Credit event and load it into the simulator. To do this, select the Events sheet, select a single event row, then click the Load Row into Simulator.

If you are not familiar with the following terms, Anchor, Peak, Critical event, other, please read this section first.

Using the Simulator

  1. Open the workbook tool.
  2. Optionally, download your data from the Hydro Quebec Customer Portal. Instructions are here.
  3. Switch to the Simulator sheet.

If you automatically loaded your data from an existing event in the Events tab, they you already have the orange and blue cells filled in.

  1. The minimum information required to run the simulator is:
    1. Cell A5 - AM or PM calculation, decide is you want to the run the simulation for a morning critical peak event or and evening event.
    2. Cell A6 - Enter your 5 day anchor average consumption
      • You can estimate this, or if you are using Home Assistant with the hydro-qc add-on, you can get this with my SQLite query. See more here.
      • If you have downloaded data from the HQ Customer Portal, you can also use this trick to get the actual value for a specific day.
    3. Cell A7 - Enter your 5 day peak average consumption
      • You can estimate this, or if you are using Home Assistant with the hydro-qc add-on, you can get this with my SQLite query. See more here.
      • If you have downloaded data from the HQ Customer Portal, you can also use this trick to get the actual value for a specific day.
    4. Cell A10 - Enter your estimated consumption during the event critical peak period.

With these minimum four values, the simulator will present a data table like this. The table, on row 30, shows the results of the credit based on your 4 input values above. It also simulates the credit, had the calculated critical anchor estimate been higher or lower. Each row above row 30 shows an anchor consumption estimate of 1 kWh less. Each row below row 30 shows an anchor consumption estimate of 1 kWh more.

  1. The first important value to consider is Calculated Anchor Target that will appear in cell C16 and A12, and cell C30.
    • This is the optimal energy consumption you wish to have during the critical anchor.
    • Exceeding this value will either severely reduce your winter credit, or have no effect whatsoever on increasing it. This may seem contradictory, but it is due to the whether you will probably exceed saving (curtailing) 40 kWh during the critical event or not. Read more here.
    • If subsequent rows past row 30 show diminishing credits, then you must stay under the Calculated Anchor Target.
    • If subsequent rows past row 30 show increasing credits, you may benefit by increasing your energy consumption to a maximum of Row 39. Row 39 is the most credit that can ever be had from HQ based on your input values.
    • Ultimately, your goal is to ensure you do not exceed this value in energy consumption during the critical anchor event.

Assuming you have downloaded and/or updated all your HQ data, you can simply find your average energy consumption for both anchor and peak periods for any date, from December 1st to today, by entering the date in an empty row, in column C of the Events tab. Click the update button and you Anchor Average and Peak Average consumption values will be calculate for you from your HQ historical data. You can then load those values into the simulator with the "Load row into Simulator" button.

You can only enter one date, and the date must exist in your HQ data. See your Data tab.

If you have Home Assistant with some device that has whole house energy monitoring, I have created custom configurations for ESPHome that not only calculates your optimal critical anchor energy target but also allows you to create automations that meet, but not exceed the target. This will maximise your HQ WCO energy credit dollars, without penalising you if you exceed the target. More information here.

Clone this wiki locally