In general, timeslice-dependent values of TIMES attributes are inherited from higher level timeslices (e.g. ANNUAL) to lower level timeslices (e.g. DAYNITE). Therefore, in most cases you can define a default value at the ANNUAL level, which is then inherited to all DAYNITE timeslices unless they already have a value explicitly defined.
However, the esteemed professors who designed TIMES made NCAP_AF to be an exception to this general rule: An NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) is not taken into account, if any non-zero NCAP_AF values are also defined at some target DAYNITE timeslices. This is a bit unfortunate, and the TIMES code can only be changed if all the main designers and TIMES users agree on the proposed change.
So, only if all the NCAP_AFs for the night-time timeslices are strictly zero, you can use NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) as a shortcut for defining the default AF for all daytime timeslices. But there is also a work-around: You can use NCAP_AFS for defining any non-zero availablity factors for all the night timeslices. Then you can still use NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) to define the default AF for all daytime timeslices, because then there are no explicit non-zero NCAP_AF values specified at the DAYNITE timeslices.
I hope this work-around can be of help for avoiding too many additional rows and columns for the input data.
[Edit:] See also the Tips and Suggestions section for VEDA-FE, where another tip is given.
However, the esteemed professors who designed TIMES made NCAP_AF to be an exception to this general rule: An NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) is not taken into account, if any non-zero NCAP_AF values are also defined at some target DAYNITE timeslices. This is a bit unfortunate, and the TIMES code can only be changed if all the main designers and TIMES users agree on the proposed change.
So, only if all the NCAP_AFs for the night-time timeslices are strictly zero, you can use NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) as a shortcut for defining the default AF for all daytime timeslices. But there is also a work-around: You can use NCAP_AFS for defining any non-zero availablity factors for all the night timeslices. Then you can still use NCAP_AF(ANNUAL) to define the default AF for all daytime timeslices, because then there are no explicit non-zero NCAP_AF values specified at the DAYNITE timeslices.
I hope this work-around can be of help for avoiding too many additional rows and columns for the input data.
[Edit:] See also the Tips and Suggestions section for VEDA-FE, where another tip is given.