[TASK] More Time Flexibility with CAPEX

[aboua-inl]

A nice feature for the CAPEX components would be to allow for a construction time longer than 1 year, and for a delayed construction time (with the MACRS) adjusting for this. It’s both an issue with the ‘alpha’ variable (only the first input is read in CAPEX it seems) and for when the MACRS start counting. I imagine this is important in the future when considering grid expansion models etc.

See example case below for additional clarity:
If a component requires a 3 year time to build, and another is build further down in the analysis timeline e.g. 10 year after the start of the analysis, TEAL cannot currently process this. This is ideally how it would be inputted in TEAL:

---

  <Capex name="htseCA" tax="true" inflation="none" mult_target="false">
    <driver>htseCAPEX</driver>
    <alpha>0 -0.333 -0.333 -0.333 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0</alpha>
    <reference>3</reference>
    <X>1</X>
    <depreciation scheme='MACRS'>15</depreciation>
  </Capex>

---

Unfortunately TEAL just reads that first entry '0' and assumes the CAPEX input is null. Currently the only way to avoid this issue is by relying on the recurring component, which is not ideal as the MACRS will need to be calculated manually.

---

  <Recurring name=" htseCA" tax="true" inflation="none" mult_target="true">
    <driver> htseCAPEX </driver>
    <alpha>0 0.333 0.333 0.333 0.046429971 0.086065311 0.075569542 0.066396859 0.058299681 0.051132511 0.047242973 0.046090706 0.045042757 0.043869797 0.042872344 0.041755905 0.040806514 0.039743871 0.038840228 0.018914394 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 </alpha>
  </Recurring>

---

[alfoa]

@dylanjm @worseliz @wangcj05 @AaronEpiney @GabrielSoto-INL It would be very nice if this becomes possible soon . Any plan for this?

[alfoa]

flexibleCapexConstructionTime.patch

This patch should work.