Jacopo Di Mario 4/17/2014

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To whom it may concern,

I am using LEAP for my assignment and I would like to ask you a bundle of questions.

I am asked to draw three policies in regards to a reference scenario which I have already built on. The scenario is very basic and just involves household sector under demand (without distinguishing between urban and rural). The policies respectively concern:
1)efficiency: i am asked to reduce electricity demand of 15% by 2040. Practically how can I do that? I mean considering my reference demand is 24000 ggwatt-hr, in order to achieve a 15% reduction, it should decrease till around 18000. Is there any function in LEAP capable to calculate that (I've made my calculations outside from the model). Furthermore I've tried to resort to more efficient technologies on the demand side (my model includes refrigerator, lighting , other devices and cooking. Is it right?
2)renewable: I am asked to set up a renewables' share of 30% in electricity generation. Again, is there any function to do that? I've attempted to go for optimisation as long as this function permits to set a renewable target. Nevertheless if I optimise my scenario, it gives me an abnormal level of Hydro, how might I constrain it? More importantly, assuming that I have historical production data (for my base year 2010) just for three technologies (coal steam,diesel and hydro)out of 8 (the group also contains new coal steam, new diesel, NGCC, wind and nuclear)how does that affect my optimised results?. To be clearer, in order to achieve the target I would like to integrate wind in the technology mix but apparently if I go for optimisation, the model does not include it. Is it related to the fact I have no historical data for that?
3)mitigation: I am asked to cut off CO2 emissions for 50% by 2040, always in relation to reference scenario's results. How may I do that? is there any function to set an emission constraint?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

Jacopo

Taylor Binnington 4/18/2014
 

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Hi Jacopo,

These are very big questions - my best advice for you is going to be to work through our basic training materials (specifically Modules 1-3), which give you enough familiarity with LEAP to answer these questions yourself. You can find these materials here:

http://www.energycommunity.org/default.asp?action=42

Nonetheless, I can also point you to some specific help files which will help answer your questions.

1. There are many ways to reduce energy demand. Not including any stock turnover modeling, LEAP supports three different methodologies, which you can read about here:

http://www.energycommunity.org/WebHelpPro/Demand/Activity_Level_Analysis.htm
http://www.energycommunity.org/WebHelpPro/Demand/Final_Energy_Demand_Analysis.htm
http://www.energycommunity.org/WebHelpPro/Demand/Useful_Energy_Analysis.htm

2. Optimized transformation modules do allow you to specify a total renewable share target, but this isn't the only way. As a learner, I would recommend that you use LEAP's standard capacity and dispatch instead of optimization, which is less transparent. You will learn how to do this in Module 3 of the training materials. However - I don't know the nature of your assignment, it may be that you are expected to use LEAP's optimization capabilities.

3. Emissions constraints for the power sector (and therefore enforced only in this part of your model) can be specified only for optimized transformation modules. Read here:
http://www.energycommunity.org/WebHelpPro/Transformation/Emission_Constraint.htm

Otherwise, it is up to you to design a power system with reduced emissions.

Hope this helps,
Taylor

Jacopo Di Mario 4/18/2014
 

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Dear Taylor,

Thanks for your quick reply.In any case I'll try to be clearer since I was too much broad in my requests.
1)Firstly, I'd like to get clarifications about optimisation. In particular, my problem is that when I try to optimise, the model gives me results entirely consisting in Hydro (i am referring to transformation outputs). I reckon this is related to the data I have plugged into LEAP in terms of costs. So in order to avoid that should I set limits on Hydro capacity? More in detail should i change values for Max capacity or max capacity additions? I've already gone through the help section's definitions but I still have to get how these parameters effectively act in LEAP. Still (though it's very silly), if a given technology has 0 in exogenous/endogenous capacity it is not taken into account in the results isn't it? In this sense I am looking for a direct confirmation.
2)Apart from the definition provided in the Help section, How can I materially implement the emission constraints target? I do not how to add it in the model. Could you please explain me the procedure step by step?
3)Finally, you have mentioned it'd be possible to build a renewable scenario by using standard capacity and dispatch. Regardless of their definitions (which I already know), how can I implement practically my target(30% of electricity production from renewables by 2040)? I could not find anything in Exercise 3. Were you referring to that one before?
Thanks in advance for your further availability.

Kind regards,

Jacopo

Taylor Binnington 4/21/2014
 

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Hi Jacopo,

Yes, the cost information that you add for your hydro process is responsible for LEAP's optimization routine (an implementation of OSeMOSYS) building a purely hydro power system. The optimization is one of least cost, so your least-cost plants will be built, under any of the capacity or emissions constraints that you enforce.

For your direct confirmation question, plants with zero exogenous capacity are still candidates for the optimization routine, if they are part of the least-cost mix. There is no endogenous capacity variable in optimized transformation modules.

Emissions constraints are enabled in Basic Parameters: Optimization: Include emissions constraint, and are set in the Effects branch of your tree. But you must explicitly add an effect under this branch, using the green plus sign, to indicate an effect for which you will be adding a constraint. You can also add Externality Costs here.

In a standard (non-optimized) module, it would be up to you to ensure that LEAP dispatches plants to meet your target supply mix. For example, you could use the ProcessShare or ProportionalToCapacity dispatch rules (read about them here: http://www.energycommunity.org/WebHelpPro/Transformation/Process_Dispatch_Rules.htm ). It would also be up to you to ensure that there is sufficient available capacity of renewable plants to meet this target, by allowing Endogenous Capacity to be added in the appropriate proportions.

Hope this helps,

Taylor

Jacopo Di Mario 4/21/2014
 

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Hi Taylor,

Thanks again for your reply, you are always clear and helpful.Unfortunately the link you forwarded me does not work; Could you please post it again? In any case, referring to my renewable target (I have to create an apposite scenario for that), I've tried to optimise the scenario without resorting to Renewable target function (cause standing my assumptions, the optimization failed) , rather trying to achieve such a result by imposing restraints on Max cap. and Max cap. additions. Could it be right? Or is it conceptually wrong?(to be clarer, if you want to achieve a target for renewable electricity production in an optimised scenario, is it possible to model it outside from renewable target function?).
Thanks for your patience.

Kind regards,

Jacopo

Taylor Binnington 4/21/2014
 

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Hi Jacopo,

Using Maximum/Minimum Capacity and Maximum/Minimum Addition Size variables controls only the expansion of installed capacity - it does not directly affect the dispatch of different processes. Therefore it would be difficult to ensure a predetermined percentage of renewables in your supply mix using these variables.

You should also be aware of the discussion in this thread:

http://www.energycommunity.org/default.asp?action=9&read=2956&fid=22

Best,

Taylor