the role of covariate in generating PEER

[amyazda]

Hi
Thanks for being available through GitHub.
I have set covariates while generating PEERs. The factor relevance is not decreasing from the first to the last PEER factor. The relevance goes up and down.
On the same data and in anther attempt, I did not set covariates. This time the factor relevance is decreasing from the first to the last PEER factor as a natural elbow.

I like to know the role of covariates in generating PEER factors. Could I ignore the up and down of factor relevance and go with my first attempt when I set the covariates?