Philosophy
General design philosophy
This package extends EnergyModelsBase with geographical functionalities. The geographical representation is achieved through individual Areas coupled with Transmission corridors. Each area can represent an individual energy system with different technology Nodes and Links between the Nodes. Transmission corridors define pathways from one Area to another Area. Each corridor can have multiple TransmissionModes used to transport resources. The TransmissionModes can be static infrastructure such as PipelineMode or dynamic modes such as ships. The latter is in the current stage not yet implemented.
The extension of EnergyModelsBase is achieved through calling on the function create_model within EnergyModelsGeography. This corresponds to the 2ⁿᵈ bullet point in the list of Extensions to the model.
Each Area is assocoiated with corresponding latitude and longitude coordinates. These coordinates can be utilized to calculate the distance between two Areas. It is however not a necessity to base the distance on the coordinates. The values are in practice not used directly, but can be used by the user when calculating, e.g, OPEX values or transmission losses. It is in addition also not necesseary to use the same distance for individual TransmissionModes within a Transmission corridor. This can be beneficial for the case of power lines vs. pipelines which may require a different routing due to the geographical features of a region.
EnergyModelsGeography does not directly allow for emissions associated with transport of energy or mass. We included in an internal version one approach to extend the emission constraints, but are not yet satisfied with the exact implementation. This implies that including emissions in mass/energy transport is on the agenda for future improvements.
Extensions to the model
EnergyModelsGeography is also designed to be extended by the user. Extensions of EnergyModelsGeography are possible through
- specialized
Areas (like theLimitedExchangeArea) and - new
TransmissionModes.
Specialized Areas
Specialized Areas are areas with additional constraints. In general, it is possible to import and export as much as possible through the connected Transmission corridors. Introducing specialized Areas allow the introduciton of additional constraints within an Area. These constraints can include, among others, limits on the CO₂ emissions within an Area, export limits both on, e.g. operational or strategic periods as well as many other modifications.
New TransmissionModes
New TransmissionModes may be relevant for describing a dynamic transport mechanism or for adding a distinctive description for an energy carrier. TransmissionModes can be developed similar to new Nodes as described in EnergyModelsBase.