Hướng dẫn sử dụng chi tiết mô hình message bằng bộ số liệu demo

For a multi-region study, a click on its name gives a list of case studies for the main region and sub-regions Fig.. If the user opens case study of a main-region, the program also shows

MESSAGE

Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General

Environmental Impacts USER MANUAL

(DRAFT)

International Atomic Energy Agency

April 2008

CHAPTER ONE 2

Introduction 2

1.1 Model overview 2

1.1.1 Energy flows: energy carriers and technologies 2

1.1.2 Time variations in annual demand: the load curve 5

1.1.3 Capacities of and investments on technologies 5

1.1.4 Limits and bounds on technologies 5

1.1.5 Absolute and dynamic limits 5

1.1.6 Relations/constraints 6

1.1.7 Time horizon 6

1.1.8 Optimization criterion 6

1.2 MESSAGE software 6

FIG 1.1 Schematic presentation of some energy chains. _ 4 FIG 1.2 Schematic presentation of MESSAGE components. _ 7

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

MESSAGE stands for Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impacts It is a software designed for setting up models of energy systems (i.e energy supplies and utilization) to find its optimum expansion path in the medium to long-term period MESSAGE was originally developed at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) The IAEA acquired latest version of MESSAGE and several enhancements have been made in it, most importantly addition of a user-interface to facilitate its application In its general formulation MESSAGE allows building of dynamic linear programming (LP) models with a mixed integer option

The underlying principle of a model, built using the MESSAGE, is optimization of an objective function under a set of constraints that define the feasible region containing all possible solutions of the problem The value of the objective function helps to choose the solution considered best according to the criteria specified In general categorization, models built using the MESSAGE belong to the class of LP models with the option of mixed integer programming as they may contain some integer variables A set of standards solvers (glpk, cplex and mosek) can be used to solve these models

This manual describes the operational aspects of the MESSAGE software in which a model is called a case study Therefore, through out this manual, the phrases of “a model” and “a case study” are synonymous Furthermore, the MESSAGE can be used to develop a model of a system other than energy system The main objective of developing the MESSAGE software, however, was to facilitate building of an energy system model Therefore, through out this manual energy system models are referred

An energy model is designed to formulate and evaluate alternative energy supply strategies consonant with the user-defined constraints such as limits on new investment, fuel availability and trade, environmental regulations and market penetration rates for new technologies Environmental aspects can be analysed by accounting; and if necessary limiting, the amounts of pollutants emitted by various technologies at various steps in energy supplies This helps to evaluate the impact of environmental regulations on energy system development

1.1 Model overview

The following subsections discuss the major building blocks for constructing a model/case study in the MESSAGE

1.1.1 Energy flows: energy carriers and technologies

In first approximation a model, built using the MESSAGE, could be labelled a physical flow model Given a vector of demands for specified energy goods or services, it assures sufficient supply, utilizing the technologies and resources considered MESSAGE allows modelling of all steps in the energy flows from supply to demand, which is generally referred to as energy chain and steps are called levels Fig 1.1 shows the schematic representation of some energy chains

The backbone of the MESSAGE is a flexible framework that allows detailed description of the energy system being modelled This includes the definition of i) energy forms at each level of energy chains, ii) technologies that are producing or using these energy forms, and iii) the energy resources The energy forms and technologies can be defined for all steps of energy chains

Defining of energy forms includes identification of the levels in the energy chain starting from the demand to the resources (e.g useful, final and primary), the energy forms (commodities) actually used

(e.g coal and district heat), as well as energy services (e.g space heat or hot water) Energy demand data, exogenous to the model, is given at the first level of each energy chain and the model computes demands at the following levels of the chain up to the energy resource level, as desired.

FIG 1.1 Schematic presentation of some energy chains

Coal Extraction

Gas Power Plant

Oil Power Plant

Hydro Power Plant

Oil Heating Plant

Distribution

Oil Transport&

Distribution

Gas Transport&

Distribution

Electricity Transport&

Distribution

District Heat Transport&

Coal R/C.

Oil R/C Gas R/C

Technologies are defined by their inputs and outputs, their efficiency and degree of variability if more than one input (output) is used (produced) for defining the possible production pattern for some technologies such as a refinery or a pass-out-turbine The MESSAGE also allows operation of a technology in alternative modes such as a dual fired power plant that can be run on gas or alternatively on heavy oil Operation of technology is referred to as its activity, and the user can define more than one activity of a technology for a mode of operation such as generation of electricity and production of heat A ratio of the main output of the main activity to the main output of the alternative activity is defined to model relation between the activities

1.1.2 Time variations in annual demand: the load curve

For some energy carriers the timely availability causes considerable cost and management efforts Electricity has to be provided by the utility at exactly the same time it is consumed MESSAGE allows modelling and simulation of this situation by providing option to subdivide each year into a number of parts, which are generally referred to “load regions” The parts of the year aggregated into one load region can be chosen according to different criteria: just sorted according to the power requirements or aggregation of various typical parts of the year for example representation of all days

of summer by a typical summer day The MESSAGE calculates the load curves from the definition of these load regions and distribution of the annual demand in these regions Inclusion of load curves improves the representation of power requirements and the utilization/building of different types of power plants Additionally, the semi-ordered load representation opens the opportunity to model energy storage (e.g., transfer of energy from night to day, from summer to winter)

1.1.3 Capacities of and investments on technologies

The MESSAGE allows accounting of existing capacities of different technologies In the optimization process, the model computes the new capacity requirement taking into account the exiting capacities and their retirement time This modelling of the existing system enhances the amount and quality of obtainable information considerably By knowing the investment requirement for additional capacity building, one can assess the effects of the energy sector’s development on the economy

The investment requirements can be distributed over the construction time of the plant and they can

be subdivided into different categories to allow accounting for the requirements from some important industrial and commercial sectors Furthermore, the MESSAGE allows accounting of the needs for basic materials during construction of a technology as well as the utilization of non-energetic inputs during the operation of a plant, for keeping track of the industrial branches they originate from in monetary terms or just accumulating the needs in physical units

1.1.4 Limits and bounds on technologies

The user can put limit or bound on an energy resource or a technology  such as maximum capacity that can be built on a technology, or maximum and minimum levels of output from a technology There is variety of limits and bounds that can be defined on capacity building of technologies and resources Furthermore, there is a set of limits/bounds that can be defined for variables related to activity of a technology i.e its input, output and fuel inventory If a technology has more than one activity, limits and bounds can be defined on technology variables of each activity Furthermore, a global limit on all activities of a technology can also be defined

1.1.5 Absolute and dynamic limits

The values of limits and bounds on technologies and resources can be given in absolute terms or in the growth rate form The development of an energy system over time can be more or less predefined

if relative or absolute limits for certain energy carriers or technologies are given But additionally MESSAGE gives the possibility to introduce maximal or minimal growth (or decline) rates for the installation of new technologies and for the use of domestic and imported resources This allows

predefining a range of variability of the system over time, the MESSAGE dynamically chooses an optimal strategy within the range

1.1.6 Relations/constraints

The most powerful feature of the MESSAGE is modelling of relationships between the technologies

or between technologies and resources The model provides a flexible framework to define various types of relationships such as:

i) limit on a technology in relation to some other technologies (e.g., a maximum share of wind energy in total electricity generation),

ii) a common limit to be met by a set of technologies (e.g., maximum limit on emission of SO2

from all technologies emitting it; given in millions tons of SO2),

iii) constraints between production and installed capacity (e.g., ensure take-or-pay clauses in international gas contracts forcing customers to consume a minimum share of the contracted level during summer months)

These relations/constraints are tools for modelling a specific strategy for development of the energy system

By default, minimization of the total system costs is the criterion used for optimisation of the model developed using the MESSAGE The total system cost includes investment costs, operation cost and any additional penalty costs defined for the limits, bounds and constraints on relations For all costs occurring at later points in time, the present value is calculated by discounting them to the base-year

of the case study The sum of the discounted costs is used to find the optimal solution

Discounting makes the costs occurring in different points in time comparable; the discount rate defines the weights different periods get in the optimization In principle, it should be equal to the long-term real interest rate, i.e excluding inflation or any other opportunity costs A high discount rate gives more weight or importance to present expenditures than to future ones, while a low discount rate reduces these differences and thus favours technologies that have high investment cost but low operation costs

1.2 MESSAGE software

The current version of the MESSAGE software consists of the following main components

• A user-interface for building a model

• Databases

• A matrix generation program called “mxg”

• An Optimization program called “opts”

• A program for the post processing of the solution for extraction of results called “cap”

Fig 1.2 shows the flow of control and information between these components in execution of the MESSAGE software In addition, two more programs are given to facilitate the model building The program called “ckpchn” is to check the chain representing the energy system for any missing link, and the program “postp” is to post process the solution file for ?

The user-interface provides a set of windows to build a model and to prepare its database It also provides windows to run the mxg, opt and cap programs The mxg program uses the database to generate a matrix of the model which is solved by the selected solver in the opt program The user-interface facilitates extraction of the solution file in the interactive mode The cap program uses the solution file of the opt program, and prepares the results in a standard format covering some selected parts of the solution It also provides a window for the user to select and extract some other parts of the solution In this window, the user can further process the extracted results to get the final output in the desired form

FIG 1.2 Schematic presentation of MESSAGE components

User-interface

CHAPTER TWO 4

Getting started 4

2.1 Installation of MESSAGE software 4

2.2 Getting started 8

2.3 Management of case studies 11

2.3.1 Opening a case study to work on 11

2.3.2 Creating a new case study 13

2.3.3 Copying an existing case study 17

2.3.4 Making back-up of a case study 21

2.3.5 Restoring a case study 23

2.3.6 Deleting a case study 24

2.3.7 Saving and closing a case study 25

2.3.8 Selection of auxiliary programs and solver 28

2.3.9 Default units 28

2.3.10 Change instance 30

2.3.11 Edit instance defaults 32

2.3.12 Create new Instances 36

2.4 Management of scenarios in a case study 36

2.5 Help command 39

List of Figures

FIG I.1 Window for installation of MESSAGE program 5

FIG I.2 Window showing license agreement of MESSAGE program 5

FIG I.3 User name for installation of MESSAGE program 6

FIG I.4 Folder to install MESSAGE program 6

FIG I.4a Error in defining of folder to install MESSAGE program 7

FIG I.5 Options for installation of MESSAGE program 7

FIG I.6 Folder to create shortcut for MESSAGE program 8

FIG 2.1 Background window of the MESSAGE program 9

FIG 2.2 Main window of the user-interface of MESSAGE 9

FIG 2.3 Window for management of case studies 10

FIG 2.4 Window to select a single-region case study to open it 12

FIG 2.5 Window to select a multi-region case study to open it 12

FIG 2.6 Window to get the options for creating a new case study 13

FIG 2.7 Window to create a single-region case study from scratch 14

FIG 2.8 Window to select tdb for a new single-region case study 14

FIG 2.9 Window to create a multi-region case study from scratch 16

FIG 2.10 Window to select tdb for main region of a multi-region case study 16

FIG 2.11 Window to create a sub region in a multi-region case study 17

FIG 2.12 Window to create a new case study by copying 18

FIG 2.13 Window to select an existing case study for copying 19

FIG 2.14 Window to enter name of the new single-region case study 19

FIG 2.15 Window to create a multi-region case study by copying an existing multi-regional study 20

FIG 2.16 Window to copy existing case-studies into a multi-region case study 21

FIG 2.17 Window to copy existing case-studies into a multi-region case study 21

FIG 2.18 Window for selecting case studies to make backup 22

FIG 2.19 Window for selecting a place for saving backup file 22

FIG 2.20 Window for network selection to save a backup file 23

FIG 2.21 Window for selection of case studies to restore 24

FIG 2.22 Window to select a case study for deleting 25

FIG 2.23 Window to save a case study after editing of data bases 25

FIG 2.24 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing 26

FIG 2.25 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing 27

FIG 2.26 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing 27

FIG 2.27 Window for settings 28

FIG 2.28 Data fields showing labels 29

FIG 2.29 Window to see the default data types 30

FIG 2.30 Window for setting environment 31

FIG 2.31 Window for saving environment variables in an other file 31

FIG 2.32 The default environment file (.msguric) 32

FIG 2.33 Window to edit instance defaults 32

FIG 2.34 Window to edit/define default values for some data entities 33

FIG 2.35 Window for changing the tdb 33

FIG 2.36 Window showing names and paths of programs 34

FIG 2.37 Window showing default paths of all directories 35

FIG 2.38 Window showing directories of all existing case studies 35

FIG 2.39 Window for management of case studies 36

FIG 2.40 Window to create new instance 36

FIG 2.41 Window for scenario management 37

FIG 2.42 Window to create a new scenario by copying 38

FIG 2.43 Window to create an empty scenario 38

FIG 2.44 Window to select a scenario for deleting 39

FIG 2.45 Window showing the help option 40

FIG 2.46 Window showing “todo” option 40

CHAPTER TWO

Getting started

The MESSAGE software provides a user-friendly environment for developing models of energy systems, preparation of their input databases, computation of the models and preparation of the reports A case study is a framework in which a model of an energy system is developed and computed under a set of assumptions referred to as a scenario This chapter discusses installation procedure of the MESSAGE software and management of case studies and their scenarios

2.1 Installation of MESSAGE software

The MESSAGE can be installed in the MS Windows 2000/XP operating system or later versions The user installing MESSAGE should have the right to create a new directory The CD-ROM for MESSAGE software contains an application file “MESSAGE_setup.exe” and a pdf file of this manual

Running of the application file opens a window to install the MESSAGE software (Fig I.1) As instructed in this window, the user should close all other windows and make sure that no other program is running at the installation time The next window (Fig I.2) shows the License agreement and the user has to agree on the given terms and conditions to proceed with the installation The next window (Fig I.3) gives two fields to enter the user name and the company name

To put the MESSAGE software on a system, the installation program suggests a sub-folder named MESSAGE_V, in the folder for programs (Fig I.4) However, the user can edit/enter name of the folder and the path to install MESSAGE in some other location Alternatively, the user can click on the change button and the program opens a window to select a location for MESSAGE installation In selection of another folder, the user should make sure that i) the folder-name does not contain any blank character and ii) the selected folder has sufficient space to install MESSAGE The installation program gives the space required and the space available on the selected drive (Fig I.4) The program gives an error message if the path name is not correct or the folder name contains a blank character For example, selection of “Program Files” will give an error message because of the blank character (Fig I.4a)

There are three options to install the MESSAGE software (Fig I.5): The first option (Full) is to install the software from the scratch This option is used if MESSAGE is being installed for the first time on

a machine or the existing installation is being replaced completely In the later case, the first option will delete all the work previously done

The second option is given to update the existing MESSAGE installation keeping the work done earlier (model developed and setting made) using the previous version However, to make sure that the problem of incompatibility does not arise, between the new version and the models developed using the earlier version, the user may like to install the program on another drive or in a different folder and run all his/her models on the new version before updating the existing version using the second option The third option is to install help which enables the user to open the electronic file of this user manual while using the MESSAGE program This file is also given outside the software if the user wants to read the manual before installing the package

FIG I.1 Window for installation of MESSAGE program

FIG I.2 Window showing license agreement of MESSAGE program

FIG I.3 User name for installation of MESSAGE program

FIG I.4 Folder to install MESSAGE program

FIG I.4a Error in defining of folder to install MESSAGE program

FIG I.5 Options for installation of MESSAGE program

By default, the shortcut folder is made in the IAEA program group (Fig I.6) but the user can also select another group MESSAGE can be installed either for the current user only, who is installing MESSAGE, or for all users of that machine However, the MESSAGE should not be installed on a network, to allow multiple-user at the same time, as it will not work properly

The installation program creates four folders in the MESSAGE_V folder (message_bin, message_doc, message_help and models) The user works with this setting of the sub-folders most of the time Only, some advance users may some time like to change this setting In Chapter 2 of this manual, Sub-sections 2.3.10 to 2.3.12 discuss commands to do so

The installation program also set the command to uninstall MESSAGE The user can see this

“Uninstall MESSAGE-V” command in the side menu of the IAEA program folder or the other program folder in which the shortcut is installed (a click on the Start button of the operating system the program groups) It is recommended that the user makes back up of their models/case studies and uninstalls MESSAGE if s/he wants to install MESSAGE again in the machine for any reason

FIG I.6 Folder to create shortcut for MESSAGE program

2.2 Getting started

On the Icon of the MESSAGE program, a double click opens two windows The first window (Fig 2.1) is the commands window for the MESSAGE software, and the second one is the main window to start the user-interface for working in the interactive mode (Fig 2.2) The first window remains in the background during execution of the MESSAGE program, and it is closed when the user exits from the program

FIG 2.1 Background window of the MESSAGE program

The second window, that provides the user-interface, is called the main window (Fig 2.2) as all major commands to run the program are initiated from the menu bar given in this window

FIG 2.2 Main window of the user-interface of MESSAGE

To start with, this window shows name of the user and a menu bar on which Cases and Help commands are active (Fig 2.2) The rest of the commands of the main menu remain disabled unless a case study is opened to work on a model The following paragraphs discuss the Cases command while Section 2.7 discuses the Help command

The Cases command is used for opening, creating, copying, making backing up, restoring, and deleting of case studies if no case study is opened It is also used for selecting a set of additional tools

required to run with the program and to see the default units of all input data fields given in the interface Furthermore, a sub-set of three commands is given to facilitate the advance users

user-FIG 2.3 Window for management of case studies

A Click on the Cases command drops down a menu (see Fig 2.3) This menu provides the followings options to select one (i.e a click on it)

Open to open one of the existing case studies, which include case studies given with the

MESSAGE program as examples and case studies already created by the user New to create a new single region or multiple region case study

Copy to copy an existing case study for creation of a new case study

Backup to save case studies in a condensed form

Restore to restore a case study from its backup file (i.e the condensed form)

Delete to delete one of the existing case studies from the system

Settings to choose the environment for execution of the program

Default units to get the list of all input data fields defined in the MESSAGE model and units of

measurement of the input variables set by default

Change instance to change the default directories for case studies, MESSAGE profile, MESSAGE

program and its executable file, the user name and a file containing all these information

Edit instance defaults:

defaults: Default parameters such as discount rate, base-year and steps are given

for a new scenario

glob.reg: It has the information of synopsis and tdb of all case studies

glob.dir: It shows a table which has information about important directories and

files used for Message

default def: It has information about optimizer, editor, holiday etc

mms pro: It keeps the list of files along with path about different cases to see the

detail of their related files

Create new instance: This feature is used to change the directory for storing the models; the

program creates a new directory instantly in some given path to save the models

Exit to close the MESSAGE program along with the background window 2.3 Management of case studies

The program allows the users to build various models, each referred to as a case study, therefore the starting point for running the program is management of the case studies i.e opening, creating, copying and deleting of the case studies This section discusses set of windows for management of case studies

The program allows building of multi-regions model A multi-region model comprises of a model for one main region and model/s for sub-region/s The program keeps each model in a separate case study, and accordingly database files for each model There are some differences in opening and creation of the single- and multi-region studies Sub-sections 2.3.1a and 2.3.2a discuss these operations for a single-region study, respectively, while Sub-section 2.3.1b and 2.3.2b discuss opening and creating of

a multi-region study, respectively

2.3.1 Opening a case study to work on

(a) Single-region study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command in the main window (Fig 2.3), a click on Open gives the list of all the existing case studies (see Fig 2.4) A click on one of the names (followed by a click

on the Ok button) opens a case study to work on The program shows name of the case study in the centre of the main window beside the Case study title and also in title of the Message window

For each case study, the program keeps an application database file called “adb” and database files for alternative scenarios called “ldbs” (see Chapter 3 for details) After opening a case study, the user can work on its databases or can create/compute a scenario For a new case study, the user has to complete the adb first to create its alternative scenarios As the user opens a case study, the first sub-set of commands in the drop-down list of the Cases command changes to allow management of scenarios (see Section 2.4), saving and closing of the selected case study (Sub-section 2.3.7)

FIG 2.4 Window to select a single-region case study to open it

FIG 2.5 Window to select a multi-region case study to open it

(b) Multi-region case study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command in the main window (Fig 2.3), a click on Open gives the list of all the existing case studies (see Fig 2.4) For a multi-region study, a click on its name gives

a list of case studies for the main region and sub-regions (Fig 2.5) The program always put name of the case study for the main region on top of this list A click on one of these names opens that case study The program shows name of the case study in the centre of the main window beside the Case study title and also in title of the Message window If the user opens case study of a main-region, the program also shows names of case studies of all sub-regions within brackets along with the main-region name in title of the Message window

2.3.2 Creating a new case study

(a) Single-region study

There are two methods to create a new case study in the MESSAGE:

i) Creating a new case study from the scratch

ii) Copying an existing case study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command, (see Fig 2.6), New and Copy commands do these functions This Sub-section discusses the New command, while Sub-section 2.3.3 discusses the Copy command It may be noted that creation of a case study only adds the new case study into the list of the existing case studies The user needs to open this new case study to work on it (see Para (a) in Sub-section 2.3.1)

FIG 2.6 Window to get the options for creating a new case study

The program allows creation of a case study from the scratch i.e creating a case study without any data entities in the application database On the drop-down menu of the Cases command, a click on New gives two options (see Fig 2.6) If a case study is open, the user needs to close it to get the New command on the menu

A click on the first option opens a new window (Fig 2.7) to enter name of the case study, its brief identification called synopsis and the technology database to be used with the case study The use can define a long name of a case study but it is highly recommended that at least first 8 characters of these names should not be the same

Synopsis which is a brief name of a case study, and it is used for identification of the study in

other parts of the program For example, the program automatically adds this synopsis

in names of all scenarios created in this case study

tdb name which is name of a technology database (referred to as tdb) Initially, an empty

database is given for the user to prepare her/his own technology database (see Chapter

3 for details) The user can create more than one tdb, and the program gives the empty tdb or any other tdb available to the user to select one

Description which is a brief introduction of the case study It can help in recording high-lights of

the model and history of the case study

A click on arrow in the field for “tdb name:” opens a window (Fig 2.8) that gives the list of technical databases to select one If the user has not created a tdb with a different name then MESSAGE will always show only “empty” tdb A click on it selects the tdb for the new case study The selected name appears in the tdb name field The program creates the adb file of the new case study and a default scenario called “adb scenario” After editing and detailed analysis of the adb scenario (see Section 3.4

in Chapter 3), the user can create alternative scenarios by copying the adb scenario

FIG 2.7 Window to create a single-region case study from scratch

FIG 2.8 Window to select tdb for a new single-region case study

(b) Multi-region study

In a multi-region study, the user models energy systems of two or more than two sub-regions, and defines a main region to optimize the energy systems of the sub-regions simultaneously as one region The user may optimize each case study for a sub-region independently because the program considers main region as a case study and each of the sub-region also as an independent case study

For the main-region and each sub-region, in addition to the name of the case study, the user needs to give the followings:

Synopsis which is brief name of a case study, and it is used for identification of the study in

other parts of the program For example, the program automatically adds this synopsis

in names of all scenarios created in this case study

tdb name which is name of a technology database (referred to as tdb) Initially, an empty

database is given for the user to prepare her/his own technology database (see Chapter

3 for details)

Description A brief description to record major features of the energy supply system modelled in

the case study

There are two methods to create a new multi-region case study in the MESSAGE:

i) Create a new case study from the scratch

ii) Copy existing case studies

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command, (see Fig 2.6), New and Copy commands do these functions This section discusses the New command for a multi-region case study while Sub-section 2.3.3b discusses the copy command It may be noted that creation of a case study only adds the new case study into the list of the existing case studies The user needs to open this new case study to work

on it (see Sub-section 2.3.1b)

On the side-menu of the New command (Fig 2.6), a click on the second option opens a window to create a multi-region study (Fig 2.9) In this window, the user enters name of a directory to be created for the new study, name of the case study of the main region, its synopsis, and names of the case studies of sub-regions with identity codes separated by a space

FIG 2.9 Window to create a multi-region case study from scratch

After giving a name in the “sub-regions:” field, a press on Enter key shows a list of sub-region names (Fig 2.9) The user can then edit the field to give name of the next sub-region

FIG 2.10 Window to select tdb for main region of a multi-region case study

A click on the Create button (Fig 2.9) opens a window to enter synopsis, tdb name and description of the main region (Fig 2.10) This window is similar to that given in Fig 2.8 The program opens a similar window for each sub-region (Fig 2.11) When the user completes data entries for the main region (i.e click on the OK button), the program opens the window for the first sub-region (Fig 2.11) This process goes on till the last sub-region This procedure creates a directory with the name of the multi-region study and a set of sub-directories, one for the main-region and one for each sub-region The multi-region case study is not created if the user clicks the Cancel button in the main-region window (Fig 2.10) However, if the user clicks on Cancel button in any sub-region window (Fig 2.11), case study of the main-region is created but case studies for sub-regions will not be created

FIG 2.11 Window to create a sub region in a multi-region case study

2.3.3 Copying an existing case study

(a) Single-region study

To start with, the existing case studies in the MESSAGE program include only a few prototype studies provided for demonstration purpose However, every time a new case study is created, the program adds it to the list of existing case studies

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (Fig 2.6), a click on Copy command opens a window

to copy one of the existing case studies for creation of a new case study (please note that the Copy command is not available if any case study is open) In this window (Fig 2.12), the first field is for selecting name of the existing case study to be copied The second field is to display name of the new case study, while the third and fourth fields are to enter synopsis of the new case study and selection of tdb for it, respectively

FIG 2.12 Window to create a new case study by copying

A click on the arrow in the first field (Fig 2.12) lists all the existing case studies to choose one for copying This list (see Fig 2.13) shows all single- and multi-region case studies In this list, the first column shows S for the single-region studies and case studies of the sub-regions of the multi-region studies (as explained before, there is an independent case study for each sub-region) The first column shows M for the case studies of the main-regions in multi-region studies A click on one of the names selects that study for copying If there is no multi-region study in the existing case studies, the program gives only names of the case studies as shown in Fig 2.4

The user may install MESSAGE in two different directories on the same machine At the end of the list of case studies, “Other instance” is given to get the list of case studies in the other MESSAGE installation (see Sub-section 2.3.11 on change instance and Sub-section 2.3.12 on create a new instance)

FIG 2.13 Window to select an existing case study for copying

To create a single-region case study by copying, the user can select:

i) an existing single-region case study or

ii) a case study of a sub-region from an existing multi-region study

On selection of a case study, the program opens a new window (Fig 2.14) In this window, the user enters name of the new study in the first field, and the program considers that a single-region case study is being created On click of the Ok button, the program returns to the copy window (Fig 2.12), and the new name appears in the field of region name The user then continues with entering other information for the new study (i.e synopsis, tdb and description) as discussed in Sub-section 2.3.3a The second field in this window (Fig 2.14) is to copy an existing single-region case study to add a sub-region in a multi-region study Sub-section 2.3.3b discusses this option under creating multi-region study using the copy command

FIG 2.14 Window to enter name of the new single-region case study

For every case study, the program makes a default scenario (reported as adb scenario), which is created when the case study is created The program updates this scenario every time the adb is modified In the Scenarios field (Fig 2.12), a click on the arrow gives names of all the scenarios of the case study being copied including the adb scenario and a code of “all” to copy all scenarios The user can select a set of scenarios by choosing some of the scenarios from the list while keeping the shift-button pressed The program copies the data base files (i.e adb and ldbs) according to selection of scenarios If the user wants to make many changes in the new case study then it is better to copy only the adb scenario and edit the adb for the desired changes The user can then use that adb scenario for making alternative scenarios in the new study The last field in this window (Fig 2.12) is to keep some notes on the new case study

The following paragraphs discuss these two methods in the same order

Fig 2.15 shows the window to create a multi-region study by copying an existing multi-region study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command, a click on the copy command (Fig 2.6) opens the window to select a case study (Fig 2.13) A click in the first field of this window gives a list of the existing case studies for selection (Fig 2.13) Selection of a case study of a main region (i.e a study name with M in the first column) opens the window given in Fig 2.15 The first field shows name of the selected multi-region study and its Main region The second field is for the user to enter name of

the new multi-region study to be created The third row contains two fields The coloured field shows the directory name of the existing multi-region study, and the white field is for the user to give directory name of the new study Using the same pattern, the following row/rows give names of sub-regions in the existing study and fields for the user to enter names of the sub-regions and their ids for the new study

The synopsis field (Fig 2.15) is to give synopsis of the new study and the last field shows the options for copying scenarios of the existing study i.e only adb scenario or All scenarios or some selected scenarios The program copies the data base files (i.e adb and ldbs) according to the selection of scenarios If the user wants to make many changes in the new case study then it is better to copy only the adb scenario and edit the adb for the desired changes The user can then use that adb scenario for making alternative scenarios in the new study The last field in this window (Fig 2.15) is to keep some notes on the new case study

.FIG 2.15 Window to create a multi-region case study by copying an existing

multi-regional study

The user can create a multi-region study from a set of single-region studies To start with, the user creates a new multi-region study (as discussed above in this section), and defines only one dummy sub-region which s/he will delete later To copy the existing single-region studies into an existing multi-region study, on the drop-down menu, a click on the copy command (Fig 2.6) opens the copy window (Fig 2.12) A click on the arrow in the first field in this window gives list of all exiting case studies (Fig 2.13) On this list, all single-region studies have S in column 1 A click on a single-region study selects it and the program opens a window to select the destination case study (Fig 2.16)

In the second field labelled as “sub region to:”, the drop-down list shows all the existing multi-region studies to choose from On selection of a multi-region study, the program shows a field (Fig 2.17) to give an identifier for the new region being created by copying another single-case study The program

returns to the copy window (Fig 2.12) In this window, the user gives a name to new sub-region being created in a multi-regional study by copying another single-case study

In the copy window (Fig 2.12), the user enters synopsis for the new sub-regional study and selects scenarios from the existing study for copying either only adb scenario or All scenarios or some selected scenarios The program copies the data base files (i.e adb and ldbs) according to the selection

of scenarios If the user wants to make many changes in the new case study then it is better to copy only the adb scenario and edit the adb for the desired changes The user can then use that adb scenario for making alternative scenarios in the new study

FIG 2.16 Window to copy existing case-studies into a multi-region case study

FIG 2.17 Window to copy existing case-studies into a multi-region case study

2.3.4 Making back-up of a case study

The user can make a back-up of a case study to transfer it to another system or to make an archive In making back-up, the program adds all files of the case study into a zip file

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (Fig 2.3), a click on Backup command opens a window to show names of all existing case studies in a table (Fig 2.18) The first column in this table contains check boxes for selecting a case to make its back-up while the third column contains check boxes to select the study for removing it from the system after making its back-up

The program gives M before names of all multi-region studies and click on the first check box selects the case study of the main region as well as case studies of all sub-regions The program makes a single zip file and adds‘ _MR’ at the start of the name of the zip file Similarly a click on the check

box after the name of the multi-region study selects the case study of the main region as well as case studies of all its sub-regions to remove them from the system i.e removing the directory and the sub-directories created for the selected multi-region study

FIG 2.18 Window for selecting case studies to make backup

The program keeps a subdirectory, named “dumprest”, in the model’s directory for saving the back-up files The back-up window (Fig 2.18) shows the name and path of this directory By default the program saves the back-up file in this special directory However, the user can select a new directory for saving the back-up file A click on the browse button (see Fig 2.18) opens the window to select a drive and a directory on the selected drive for saving the back-up file (Fig 2.19) The user can also save the back-up file on a network A click on the Network button (Fig 2.19) opens a window to select the drive and folder on the Network (Fig 2.20)

FIG 2.19 Window for selecting a place for saving backup file

FIG 2.20 Window for network selection to save a backup file

2.3.5 Restoring a case study

The user can retrieve a case study from its back-up file (see Sub-section 2.3.4 for making back-up file) On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (Fig 2.2), a click on Restore opens a window to select a case study for restoring (Fig 2.21) This window gives names of all the case studies for which back-up files are available A click on a name of a case study selects it for restoring By default the program gives the list of back-up files from the special subdirectory i.e dumprest reserved for saving the back-up file in the model directory However, the user can look into the system to select any other directory if s/he has placed the back-up file in some directory

FIG 2.21 Window for selection of case studies to restore

2.3.6 Deleting a case study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (see Fig 2.2), a click on Delete opens a window (Fig 2.22) that gives a list of all existing case studies and two data fields The program shows name of a multi-region study with the name of the case study of the main region as well as names of case studies

of all its sub-regions A click on a name selects the case study for deleting, and the selected name appears in the first field The program has the following three options of deleting:

• Clean up to delete all the intermediate files (Chapter 4 discusses these files)

• Keep only data to delete all files except the input data files

• Delete all to delete all files

The second field in this window is to get these options, and to select one In this window (Fig 2.22), a click on the Test button opens a window showing the files that will be deleted for the selected option Selection of an option, followed by a click on the Ok button, deletes/cleans the selected case study The background window of MESSAGE (Fig 2.1) shows files being deleted

FIG 2.22 Window to select a case study for deleting

2.3.7 Saving and closing a case study

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command, Save and Close commands appear when a case study

is open (Fig 2.23) The Save command is to save any changes made in the databases (tdb, adb, ldb, upd) It is highly recommended that the user closes the window for editing of databases frequently to come back to the cases command and use this save command to save the changes made in any of the database

FIG 2.23 Window to save a case study after editing of data bases

In the forms for editing of databases (see Fig 3.11 in Chapter 3), three save options also appear under the Screen command but all these save options save changes made in a particular part of a database

temporarily in the memory only The user needs to modify the data files (tdb, adb, ldb, upd) by saving these changes through a click on the ‘Save’ command on the drop-down menu of the Cases command

If the user does not save the data in the data files using this cases/save command and tries to open the case study again, the program gives the message asking whether the user wants to save the changes made in the data to the files (Fig 2.24)

FIG 2.24 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing

Similarly, two other messages appear (Figures 2.25 and 2.26) if the user closes editing of a database and tries to reopen it without saving it on the file using Cases/save command These messages indicate that the data in the database file is different from the data in the memory If the user chooses

“Continue” or “yes” in the response to these messages then all changes made are discarded as the program loads the data from the file

A click on the Close command closes the case study However, if the user has not saved the case study after editing of its databases in the file, the program opens a window to inform that changes have not been saved in the data files The user can then decide whether s/he wants to modify the data files by saving the changes

FIG 2.25 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing

FIG 2.26 Message to indicate that the case study has not been saved after data editing

2.3.8 Selection of auxiliary programs and solver

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (see Fig 2.23), a click on Settings opens a window (Fig 2.27) that gives four data fields The first data field is to select a text editor that will be used to view the input data files or the intermediate results files By default, the program selects the Write program If Write is not installed in the operating system, the user needs to give name of any other text editor and its path A double click on the Editor Field opens the MS window for browsing the system

to select an editor

Similarly, the second field is given to select a program to view the help document in the html format

A double click in this field opens the MS window to browse the system for selecting the program and the directory containing it

The third field is given to give the directory of the spread sheet (Excel or Lotus), which is required for exporting of results A double click in this field opens the MS window to browse the system for selecting the directory containing it

The MESSAGE program generates a matrix that needs a solver to optimize the model (see Chapter 1) The user can select a solver available on her/his machine A click on the arrow of the fourth field gives the list of solvers that can be used to solve the matrix generated by the Message program These solvers include glpk, cplex, and mosek The glpk is provided with the MESSAGE to enable computation of studies which are not very big

A click on the Ok button saves all of the selections made

FIG 2.27 Window for settings

2.3.9 Default units

The MESSAGE program facilitates preparation of input data file in interactive mode through defined forms In these forms, each data field is labeled with a brief name of the associated data entity The program shows the detailed name when the user places the cursor on a field (see Fig 2.28) However, these names do not indicate the type of data for each input entity All data entities of the program can be grouped into following eight types of data:

7) Weight

8) Other

The window to enter general data (Fig 2.28) for a case study also shows these categories (Chapter 3 discusses this window)

FIG 2.28 Data fields showing labels

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (Fig 2.2) a click on Default units opens a window showing all data fields and the data type for each input data (Fig 2.29) This window displays a table

of three columns showing screen name given to each window or data form, names of data fields on that screen and default data category (see Chapter 3 for windows showing data forms and these screens and data fields) For example, in Fig 2.29, the first row states that, the field labeled “hiscact”

is to give data of historical activity and data type is energy

These types of data entities are given by default and the user can not change them For each type of data category, there are various units of measurement For example, energy can be measured in Mega Watt year (MWyr) or Giga Watt year (GWyr) or calories or joule etc The program has also defined the units of measurement for each data category The default units for all energy variables and their cost variables are megawatt years (MWyr) and $/kWyr, respectively By default, the model assumes that all monetary values are given in dollars of the base-year Therefore, in names of units for costs,

“$’00” is added

The user cannot modify the default units However, s/he may modify units of measurements in her/his own case study when giving the general data of the case study (see Sub-section 3.4.1 in Chapter3)

FIG 2.29 Window to see the default data types

2.3.10 Change instance

On the drop-down menu of the Cases command (see Fig 2.23), a click on Change Instance opens a window (Fig 2.30) showing the path of the directories made by the MESSAGE program for storing models, index of directory name for each case study, root directly for the MESSAGE program, and binary files The names of these four files set up the environment for running of MESSAGE therefore these are called environment variables A user may have two installations of MESSAGE on the same machine To use any part of the alternative installation, the user has to change the instance

The window for setting these environment variables (Fig 2.30) also shows a field to show name of the file that stores the environment setting; its file type is “.msguric” This information can be helpful in tracing any problem encountered in running of the program

To preserve the default environment, the use can save the changes in a new file and then use it as the default file A click on the “Save as” button opens a window for the user to enter the name of the new file (Fig 2.31)

The user may like to create a new environment file after changing the environment variables and to keep it in some other directory to use it later The Browse button is to load a previously save instance file for running the MESSAGE in an alternative environment defined and saved in a file

FIG 2.30 Window for setting environment

FIG 2.31 Window for saving environment variables in an other file