Assess a plant site
Site assessment connects a geographic boundary to a reviewed set of structures and consumer categories. Use it when mapped evidence can help you define demand or design distribution routes.
A building count does not give its energy consumption. You must still supply consumption and operating assumptions in the load builder. If you already have a reliable customer survey, use it rather than treating map coverage as a new survey.
Prepare the evidence
You need known coordinates, a time zone, the area to assess and a source for consumer classification. Define the boundary from project evidence. A place name alone does not establish the project limits or land rights.
Set the location and assess structures
- Open the site assessment from the plant overview’s Location step.
- Set the location on the map or enter the coordinates. Check latitude, longitude and time zone before proceeding.
- Draw the site boundary. The setup panel separates Site location, boundary drawing and detection. Check the drawn area before requesting data.
- Select the detection source. OpenStreetMap uses mapped building data. Google Open Buildings is an optional configured integration; it needs a suitable local environment and Earth Engine credentials.
- Start detection and wait for completion. Read the source attribution and any failure or coverage message.
- Inspect the structures. Exclude features that are outside the intended demand, and review categories and facility types. Check totals against the survey or local knowledge.
- Review the community mix and use Apply mix when assigning the selected mix to site structures.
- Transfer the reviewed counts to Load builder. The current handoff opens Consumer mix by default. Appliance & stochastic can use the same counts when you need equipment-level detail.
What is saved and what it means
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Site location | The coordinate used by resource and map workflows. |
| Boundary | The area requested for assessment. It is not proof of ownership. |
| Structures | Features reported by the selected source, with your exclusions and classification. |
| Consumer mix | A demand starting point. It still needs energy and hourly-shape inputs. |
| Source information | Attribution and provenance to retain when using the result elsewhere. |
Resolve incomplete results
If detection finds few or no buildings, check the boundary and source coverage. A small result can mean missing mapping, not a small settlement. Do not multiply the result by an unexplained factor to hide the gap.
If a basemap is unavailable, vector geometry may still be visible. Roads or buildings drawn in a background image are not necessarily present in the routing data. Inspect the actual source layers before a network run.
If Google access is unavailable, use configured OpenStreetMap data or the evidence you already hold. The inspected Google integration has an outstanding external validation dependency; its presence in the source list is not a coverage guarantee.
Continue
Use Load builder to turn reviewed counts into a demand year. Use Network design to define the source, routes, poles and customer connections.
This guide follows the September 2026 development workflow. Check release availability before using it with an older project build.