Profile Pointers

Profile Pointers provide access to time-series input data, such as weather profiles (temperature, irradiance, wind speed) or market prices. The implementation is class J_ProfilePointer.

Unlike Accumulators and Time Series which store simulation results, profile pointers read pre-defined input profiles. The profile data is stored as a double[] array with a fixed timestep.

The constructor accepts the following arguments:

• String name: A descriptive name for this profile (e.g. "ground_temperature", "day_ahead_electricity_price").
• double[] profile: The array of data values.
• double dataTimeStep_h: The time step between consecutive values in the profile array.
• double dataStartTime_h: The start time of the first profile entry, relative to 00:00 on January 1st of the simulation year.
• OL_ProfileUnits profileUnits: The physical unit of the profile values.

Key methods:

• getCurrentValue(): Returns the most recently updated value.
• getValue(double time_h): Returns the profile value at the given simulation time. Supports profile looping: when enableProfileLooping is true (default), indices beyond the array length wrap around using modular arithmetic.
• updateValue(double t_h): Calls getValue(t_h) and stores the result internally.
• getAllValues(): Returns a clone of the full profile array.
• getDataTimeStep_h(): Returns the time step of the profile data.

The updateValue / getCurrentValue pattern is used each timestep, called by the EnergyModel for all profile pointers during the simulation to avoid repeated index calculations.

For forecasting over a profile, see profile forecasters.