Contents
When Adding New Demand Branches, why am I Unable to Select a Different Branch Type?
Can LEAP be Used for Developing a GHG Inventory as Part of National Communications to the UNFCCC?
Can LEAP be Used for Non-Energy Sector GHG Mitigation Assessments?
What is the Difference Between Exogenous and Endogenous Capacity?
How Should I Cite a Report I Have Written That Refers to LEAP?
Answers to FAQs
How do I Speed-up Calculations?
Make sure your computer has a minimum CPU speed of 1GHz and at least
2 GB of RAM. Computers with faster CPUs and more RAM will reduce
calculation time. For a given PC, there are a number of things you
can do to speed-up calculations:
Reduce the number of scenarios calculated. Make sure that you are only calculating scenarios for which you wish to see results. To eliminate unwanted scenario calculations, go to the Manage Scenarios screen and uncheck the boxes attached to unwanted scenarios. Doing this will not affect the data entered for the scenario, it will just prevent you from seeing results for the scenario.
Reduce the scope of calculations: Under the Settings: Scope screen, you can disable various parts of an analysis. At a minimum you must conduct energy demand analyses, but the following analyses are all optional: Transformation and Resources, statistical differences and stock changes, costs, environmental loadings and non energy sector emissions. Unchecking an option will not delete any data - it will only hide that data.
Temporarily reduce the number of analysis years. You can temporarily reduce the number of years over which scenarios are calculated by going to the General: Settings screen, and entering an earlier End Year. Doing this will not affect any data you have entered, it will only reduce the number of years for which results are calculated. Later, when you wish to view results for all years, simply change the End Year back to its correct value, before viewing results.
Choose to save results for fewer years: If you only need to see results every N years (e.g. every 2, 5, 10 or 20 years) you can greatly increase the speed of calculations as well as increase the speed with which each chart of table in Results View can be produced. Go to the General Settings: Years screen and change the value in the Results Every box to alter this setting.
Reduce the number of regions calculated. In multi-regional data sets, go to the General: Regions screen and uncheck the check boxes in the Calculated column for any scenarios for which you do not wish to see results. As with scenarios, doing this will not affect the data entered, it will just prevent you from seeing results for the region. For a data set with many regions you want to switch on only one or two regions until you have got your model fully debugged,
Why
are Some Options Disabled, such as the "Save" Option?
Options are non-selectable (disabled) when they are not currently applicable.
For example, the Save option may be disabled because no changes have
been made to data since the last time you saved data. In addition,
note that some options are disabled in the Evaluation
version of LEAP (Save Data, New Area , etc.) To fully enable your
copy of LEAP, you will need to enter a user name and registration
code, under the Help: Register menu option. User names and registration
codes are only made available to licensed users of LEAP. Visit the
LEAP web site for information on how to
get a license.
What
should I do if I Encounter a Problem or Bug?
Should problems arise, please try and address the problems in the following
order:
Firstly, check to make sure that you have the most up-to-date version of LEAP. Use the Help: Check on Internet for Updates feature. If available, this will automatically install a newer version of LEAP on your PC. Your existing data will be preserved. Each newer versions of LEAP contains new features and bug fixes, so this may help solve any problems you are encountering. Note that the update normally requires that approximately 200 MB of data is downloaded, so you will need a reliable Internet connection to take advantage of this option.
Next, check the discussion forums on the LEAP web site. Check to see if another user has already experienced (and hopefully solved) the same problem you are encountering. If you have not already done so, we suggest you register to use the site (which is free). This forum is also checked by SEI staff, so please post any technical support questions here rather than via email so that everyone can benefit from the answers.
Finally, feel free to contact SEI directly. Please bear in mind that we can only provide technical support to licensed users - not to users of the evaluation versions of LEAP.
Please see this web page for guidelines on posting questions to the LEAP forum.
When Adding New Demand
Branches, Why am I Unable to Select a Different Branch Type?
The current version of LEAP, does not allow you to mix branch types
(categories and technologies) as siblings at a particular level. Therefore,
once you have added one branch and set its type, all other branches
added as siblings must be of the same type. An exception to this rule
is that you may specify categories and aggregate energy intensity branches as siblings
of one another. If you have mistakenly specified multiple branches
of the wrong type, you must delete them before adding them once more
and specifying the correct type.
In a Transformation Electricity
Generation Module I have specified all My Data but no Generation Occurs.
Why?
Please follow this checklist to make sure that all data is entered
correctly. This checklist assumes you are using a simulation-based
approach. If trying to use an optimization approach, please
refer to this introduction to optimization.
First, check that the module does actually have some requirements. If there are no requirements then nothing will be generated! You can check this by viewing the Transformation: Requirements report in the Results View.
Next, make sure you have specified some capacity data for the processes you expect will operate. You can specify capacity data using the Exogenous Capacity and Endogenous Capacity variables. Check to see how much capacity was build using the Transformation: Capacity report in Results View. Check also that processes are available for dispatch using the Maximum Availability variable. These values should be non zero.
Next, review the First Simulation Year and Dispatch Rule variables. The former controls the year at which LEAP switches over from dispatching based on the data you enter in the Historical Production variable to dispatching using the rules in the Dispatch Rule variable. If you are dispatching using the PercentShare rule, make sure you have entered the percentage share of each process in the Process Share variable. In the years before the First Simulation Year make sure you have entered some non-zero values for the Historical Production variable. Note also that if you have specified conflicting data (non zero Historical Production but zero Capacity) for some processes then LEAP will display an error during calculations.
Finally, make sure that you have entered units and scaling correctly for the Capacity and Historical Production variables. For example, it is a common mistake to select an improper scaling factor, or to specify MWh when you mean to enter GWh. One way of spotting these mistakes is to look carefully at results and see if some (especially those produced in the years either side of the First Simulation Year) are much too big or much too small. A useful technique when looking at values that appear to be zeros (when you expect them to be non-zero) is to increase the number of decimal places in the Results View table by clicking the Increase Decimals () button. Sometimes non-zero values will appear that look like zeros when only showing one or two decimals. This is often a sign that a unit or scaling factor are incorrect.
Can LEAP be used for Life
Cycle Analysis?
No. LEAP is best suited for integrated analyses. It is not intended
for life-cycle analyses. Other modeling tools are available that take
a life-cycle perspective including GEMIS and GREET for modeling well-to-wheel
transport emissions.
Can LEAP be used for Developing
a GHG Inventory as Part of National Communications to the UNFCCC?
While LEAP uses many of the same calculation approaches and covers
the same sectors that would be required for a national GHG inventory,
it is a more complex tool than is required to simply do a static GHG
inventory. For this task we recommend using the specific methods
and accompanying spreadsheets developed by
the IPCC. Where LEAP is most useful is in the preparation of energy-sector
GHG Mitigation Assessments. This task generally builds upon
the work of an inventory study, but rather than looking at historical
emissions data, it examine possible future scenarios for emissions.
This task requires the preparation of forward-looking scenarios:
something that LEAP is very well-suited for.
Can LEAP be Used for Non-Energy
Sector GHG Mitigation Assessments?
LEAP is primarily an energy sector modeling tool, although it can be
used for relatively simple calculations of non-energy sector sources
and sinks. If the focus of your mitigation assessment is on the non-energy-related
sectors of agriculture, forestry or land-use change then we suggest
you use another modeling tool such as EX-ACT,
CENTURY, or AgLU models. Note however, that you may still wish
to incorporate the results from these separate analyses into the overall
set of GHG emissions accounts in your LEAP analysis. This can
easily be accomplished, especially for those of the above models that
are spreadsheet-based. Results from these models can be imported
into or linked to the non-energy branches in your LEAP area in order
to provide a single comprehensive set of emissions results covering
all sources and sinks of GHGs.
What is the Difference
between Exogenous and Endogenous Capacity?
Exogenous Capacity is capacity explicitly
entered by the user, and is normally used to reflect existing capacity
as well as planned/committed capacity additions and retirements. Endogenous Capacity values are those capacity
values calculated internally by LEAP in order to maintain a minimum
planning reserve margin. Endogenous capacity additions occur in addition
to capacity specified in the Exogenous Capacity variable. Endogenous
capacity is only available in scenarios where a module is using a
simulation methodology. It is NOT used when a module uses least-cost
optimization modeling. When doing an optimization, future capacity
values are calculated internally. For more information, see
this page on Specifying
Capacity Data in LEAP.
How Should I Cite a Report I have written That Refers to LEAP? Please refer to our citation guidelines. Please also consider sharing your reports with fellow members. Please contact us if you would like to do that.