Track your energy modelling tool’s feature gaps / identify the best open tool(s) for your modelling use-case
Format: Do-athon
Organiser: Bryn Pickering
Preferred duration: 1.5h
Description:
There are hundreds of open-source energy system modelling tools available. Each has been developed with a specific purpose, often to meet the requirements of a single PhD student, research project, or organisation. Even though some have been developed continuously for years, very few of these tools have broken out into the “mainstream”. That is, into use by system operators, utility providers, public authorities, or asset owners and operators for decision-making. There are myriad reasons for this[1], among them being a lack of feature completeness.
Tool developers and power users
In this breakout session, you will have the opportunity to compare your tool’s features to that of a leading proprietary energy system modelling tool and publish those findings to our public (and open-source) energy modelling feature inventory.
Modellers and decision-makers
In this breakout session, you will have the opportunity to define the features you require when modelling. This is a vital accompaniment to the tool feature inventory as it ensures tools are judged on those features that a given use-case actually requires. Some examples include an integrated resource plan, a resource adequacy analysis, or a network options assessment.
We aim for this inventory to become a resource for tool developers and decision-makers alike. Developers can identify feature gaps to focus development efforts and decision-makers can identify tools that best match their use-cases - whether that’s a single tool or a combination of them with complementary feature sets.
By the end of this session, we aim to have a diverse set of energy modelling tools and modelling use-cases represented in our inventory, each submitted by a modelling expert and reviewed by their peers. This will be the starting point for a living database that will be the landing page for decision-makers looking to make the journey to open source.
NOTE: this inventory is limited to capacity expansion & production cost (a.k.a. economic dispatch) modelling tools. We are working with power flow modelling tool developers to extend the taxonomy into that space but we are not there yet.
Preparation:
Download pixi.
Clone the feature taxonomy repository.
Background:
The energy modelling tool feature inventory is an extension of our tool tracker and is supported by the Breakthrough Energy GRIDS initiative.
Optional links:
- repository: GitHub - open-energy-transition/openmod-features: Open Energy Modelling Tool Feature Inventory · GitHub
- prototype dashboard: Openmod Features Dashboard
Some will argue that they do not aim for their tool to have a wider user base or use outside academia. However, the number of lightning talks and breakout sessions dedicated to showcasing new or improved tools suggests that many would welcome the opportunity. ↩︎