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Contribute to EnergyModelsGeography

Contributing to EnergyModelsGeography can be achieved in several different ways.

Create new extensions

The main focus of EnergyModelsGeography is to provide EnergyModelsBase with geographical representation using the concepts of Areas, Transmission corridors, or TransmissionModes. Hence, a first approach to contributing to EnergyModelsGeography is to create a new package with, e.g., the introduction of new Area, Transmission, or TransmissionMode descriptions. These descriptions can, e.g., include constraints for an Area or provide the model with new mathematical formulations for energy transmissions.

Note

We are currently working on guidelines for the best approach for EnergyModelsGeography, similar to the section Extensions to the model in EnergyModelsBase. This section will provide you eventually with additional information regarding to how you can develop new Area, Transmission, or TransmissionMode descriptions.

File a bug report

Another approach to contributing to EnergyModelsGeography is through filing a bug report as an issue when unexpected behaviour is occuring.

When filing a bug report, please follow the following guidelines:

  1. Be certain that the bug is a bug and originating in EnergyModelsGeography:
    • If the problem is within the results of the optimization problem, please check first that the nodes are correctly linked with each other. Frequently, missing links (or wrongly defined links) restrict the transport of energy/mass. If you are certain that all links are set correctly, it is most likely a bug in EnergyModelsGeography and should be reported.
    • If you observe no transfer of mass between geographical regions, please check first that you use a GeoAvailability node as the description is different from a GenAvailability node. In addition, please check that the Transmission corridors and TransmissionModes are set correctly as well as there is a demand or suppy in both areas of the transported Resource.
    • If the problem occurs in model construction, it is most likely a bug in either EnergyModelsBase or EnergyModelsGeography and should be reported in the respective package. The error message of Julia should provide you with the failing function and whether the failing function is located in EnergyModelsBase or EnergyModelsGeography. It can occur, that the last shown failing function is within JuMP or MathOptInterface. In this case, it is best to trace the error to the last called EnergyModelsBase or EnergyModelsGeography function.
    • If the problem is only appearing for specific solvers, it is most likely not a bug in EnergyModelsGeography, but instead a problem of the solver wrapper for MathOptInterface. In this case, please contact the developers of the corresponding solver wrapper.
  2. Label the issue as bug, and
  3. Provide a minimum working example of a case in which the bug occurs.
Note

We are aware that certain design choices within EnergyModelsGeography can lead to method ambiguities. Our aim is to extend the documentation to improve the description on how to best extend the base functionality as well as which caveats can occur.

In order to improve the code, we welcome any reports of potential method ambiguities to help us improving the structure of the framework.

Feature requests

Although EnergyModelsGeography was designed with the aim of flexibility, it sometimes still requires additional features to account for potential extensions. Feature requests for EnergyModelsGeography should follow the guidelines developed for EnergyModelsBase.

Note

EnergyModelsGeography should not include everything.

The aim of the framework is to be lightweight and extensible by the user. Hence, feature requests should only include basic requirements for the core structure, and not, e.g., the description of new Areas description. These should be developed outside of EnergyModelsGeography.