Introduction to CLEWs

Hands-on lecture 4: Technology parameters

Abhishek Shivakumara,b,c, Vignesh Sridharand, Francesco Gardumie, Taco Nietf, Thomas Alfstada, Kane
Alexander cd

aUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York

bUniversity College London, United Kingdom cLoughborough

University, United Kingdom dImperial College London, United

Kingdom eKTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden fSimon Fraser

University, Canada

V1.2.0

Revised by: Shravan Kumar Pinayur Kannan e, Roberto Herediae, Francesco Gardumie, Leigh
Martindalec, Abhishek Shivakumara,b,c, Thomas Alfstada

V1.3.0

Revised by: Kane Alexandercd , Leigh Martindalecd

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Cite as: K. Alexander, A. Shivakumar, V. Sridharan, F. Gardumi, T. Niet, T. Alfstad, ‘Introduction to

CLEWs Hands on lecture 4: Technology parameters’, Climate Compatible Growth, 2023. DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.8340838.

Tags: CLEWs; Climate; Land; Energy; Water; Systems Modelling; Integrated; Policy Coherence.
Techno-economic; Technology; Parameters; Energy system model; Optimisation; Hands-on; Climate
Compatible Growth; Open Source; Teaching Kit.

Useful links:
1) Discussion forum for CLEWs
2) Results from this Hands-on

Pre-requisites:
1) Successful completion of Hands-on lecture 3

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Learning outcomes
By the end of this exercise you will be able to:
1) Define key techno-economic parameters playing a role in the analysis of an
energy system
2) Use several techno-economic parameters in an energy system model
3) Understand the role of techno-economic parameters of various technologies in
the least-cost planning of the energy system

Activity 1 – Introduce
technoeconomic parameters
Before starting this activity, we strongly suggest that you copy the model you worked
on in the previous activities. In this way, if something goes wrong in this exercise,
you will be able to go back to the model you worked on before. We recommend you
do this before any activity where you introduce new elements in the model.
We will be reminding you to copy your model through all hands-on sessions. Here
how you copy the model:
• In the UI, in the home tab, next to the name of your model, click on the icon
for copying the model as shown in the below figure (your model may be called
differently from Exercise 1)

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 • This will generate a model called ‘yourmodelname_copy’ as shown in the
figure.

• Name this new model accordingly and now you’re set for the activity. In the
next steps of this exercise, when asked to modify SETs or parameters do so
only for this new model!
Having learnt about the main techno-economic parameters linked to technologies,
you will now introduce them into the model you initiated in Hands-on lecture 3. The
structure of the model will not change this time: you will work with the technologies

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and commodities you defined in Hands-on lecture 3 and will not add more. You will
only introduce numerical values for the parameters related to them. Below is a brief
description of the parameters you will use.

The parameters for which you will need to add values are shown in the table below.
In the rows you see the list of parameters; in the columns you see for which
technologies you need to define the parameters; in the cells you see the values you
need to assign. Bear in mind that the values below need to be assigned for all years.
Note that the VariableCost of the technologies MINCOA and MINGAS has been
introduced to represent the fuel cost for coal and gas, respectively.

Parameter Units MINCOA MINGAS PWRCOA PWRGAS PWRTRN

AvailabilityFactor Fraction 1 1 1 1 1

CapitalCost $/kW 0 0 2200 1250 8000

FixedCost $/kW/yr 0 0 75 30 0

VariableCost $/GJ 5 10 0 0 0

OperationalLife Years 30 30 30 30 50
CapacityTo PJ/GW 1 1 31.536 31.536 31.536
ActivityUnit

Here, we will guide you on how to modify a parameter. We will use the example of
the VariableCost. You will have to repeat similar steps, although with few small
differences, for the other parameters. We do not show the steps for the other
parameters, since part of the learning process for this exercise is for you to become
independent in the process of modifying the parameters of a model.

Here the steps for the VariableCost:

1. In the OSeMOSYS UI, on the home page, choose your model from the list and
click ´Data entry’ on left list in left side of the window
2. Search for the parameter’s name (in this case, VariableCost) and click on it.
Scroll down to the table to enter the data
3. Enter the data as per table below
4. Save!

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 Technology 2019 2020 2021 2022

MINCOA 5 5 5 5

MINGAS 10 10 10 10

PWRCOA 0 0 0 0

PWRGAS 0 0 0 0

PWRTRN 0 0 0 0

NOTE: What do the different columns in the data entry tab in the
OSeMOSYS UI mean?

This is linked to algebra more than the UI. It depends on the fact that each parameter
is actually a multi-dimensional matrix. For instance, the VariableCost has 4 indices,
i.e. it is defined for every REGION, MODE_OF_OPERATION, TECHNOLOGY and YEAR
in the model. You are already familiar by now with what TECHNOLOGY, YEAR and
MODE_OF_OPERATION mean. The set REGION is present to allow users to define
more countries, or more regions within a country. In this course, we will have only
one country. If we want to display the values of the VariableCost on a table with only
TECHNOLOGY and YEAR (that is, a matrix of only 2 dimensions), we will have to fix
a value first for the other two dimensions, REGION and MODE_OF_OPERATION. You
can do this in the interface by dragging the column to the top of the table as shown
in the figure below. When you click on a column name, you will find three lines on
the right side of the column name. Click on it and drag the column to the top of the
table.

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Which dimensions should we group by?

The short answer is: those that you do not need to see on the table. If we suggest
putting values for all TECHNOLOGIES and YEARS, then you should fix the other
dimensions (in the case of variable cost case SCENARIO and MODE_OF_OPERATION).
However, here we only have one region and one mode of operation. Thus it is not
needed to group by any dimensions. However, when we have multiple regions and
modes of operation, we will have to group by one of them for each dimension.

For VariableCost, if you group by the SCENARIO first and then the
MODE_OF_OPERATION, the two remaining dimensions, TECHNOLOGY and YEAR, are

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displayed on the table and you can easily insert values for all technologies and all
years in one go. This is the fastest way of providing all values, because anyway there
is only one SCENARIO and one MODE_OF_OPERATION. If you group by the values
for SCENARIO and MODE_OF_OPERATION, you do not have to change them. That is,
once you have inserted the values, you will not have to insert them again for another
SCENARIO or another MODE_OF_OPERATION.

Activity 2 – Run the model

Now, generate a Case for this model, download the data file and run it (if
you do not recall how, kindly go back to Activity 3 of Hands-on lecture 3).

Own reflection

Optional (no deliverable needed)

• What type of situation is your model representing now? What demands are
included? What supply options are included?
• Which power plant(s) provide(s) electricity now?
• Is there a difference with the previous case?
• Is there a reason for that? Do you think some of the newly given inputs (e.g.
some cost) is driving the change in solution?

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