> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.trlyr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Cycling Calculations for Assets with a Variable Energy Capacity
> How cycle limits and available energy discharges are calculated for assets with variable capacity.
To protect asset health and ensure warranty compliance, terralayr applies usage limits to virtual assets based on **Rated Energy Capacity** and real-time **Availability**.
Your contracted lifetime and annual **cycles** remain fixed, but your daily discharge limits are defined by you **Available Energy Discharges (AEDs)** and can adjust dynamically based on your asset’s availability.
## **How Cycles and AEDs Are Calculated**
When an asset's rated capacity changes (due to degradation or capacity ramp-up), we use a **time-weighted capacity** approach to calculate cycles.
When availability of the asset is impacted, we apply an additional availability weighting to calculate AEDs to prevent overcycling of the physical fleet.
### **The Mechanism**
Calculations occur at **15-minute granularity** using discharged energy time series, ensuring that cycle calculations are always proportional to the asset's rated capacity in each settlement period.
* **Cycles:** Total cycles for each quarter hour = energy discharged / rated energy capacity, $E_{dsch}/E_{rated}$
* **AEDs:** For daily limits, we weight cycles by the asset's fractional availability $\alpha$ (where 1 = 100% available, 0 = 100% unavailable)
Usage limits are calculated as follows:
Daily AED Limit
$$
\sum_{qh}\frac{E_{qh,dsch}}{E_{qh,rated}}\times\frac{1}{\alpha_{qh}}\leq \textrm{Daily\space AED\space Limit}
$$
Annual Cycle Limit
$$
\sum_{qh}\frac{E_{qh,dsch}}{E_{qh,rated}}\leq \textrm{Annual\space Cycle\space Limit}
$$
## Example Scenarios
### **Capacity Changes**
If your asset's capacity changes mid-year, your available energy throughput adjusts, but prior cycle counts remain unchanged.
**Example:**
* Asset Energy Capacity Increases from 10 → 20 MWh
* Week Before Change: 10 MWh energy capacity, 100 MWh discharged = 10 cycles
* Week After Change: 20 MWh energy capacity, 100 MWh discharged = 5 cycles
* Total cycles: 15
### **Daily AED Limits during Unavailability**
Your **annual cycle limit** is unaffected by downtime, but your **daily AEDs** are reduced proportionally to availability.
**Example:**
* Asset with 3 AEDs per day, 10 MWh capacity
* 08:00-12:00: Full discharge (10 MWh) = 1 AED and 1 cycle
* 12:00-16:00: 50% unavailability reduces available capacity to 5 MWh
* 12:00-16:00: Discharge 10 MWh = 2 full discharges of available capacity = 2 AEDs but only 1 cycle
During unavailability, your daily cycle limit decreases proportionally to protect physical assets within warranty limits. However, your annual cycle budget remains unchanged, allowing you to recover those cycles when full availability returns.