The accelerating development of open-source energy system modelling tools in recent years has now reached the point where it opens a credible alternative approach to commercial tools that are often more of a black-box in nature. It is now possible to produce analysis of high quality and to develop a wider participating modelling community, which builds confidence in results by enabling more effective peer review of work and therefore more effective feedback loops. The availability of open-source models is also critical to build a consistent stream of new talent entering the space to ensure that energy sector analytical capacity can be retained and steadily expanded.
We are excited to have followed up on our first successful Open Modelling workshop with a new two-part series focused on the PyPSA-RSA model (forked from PyPSA-ZA). This initiative aims to establish a platform where local analysts and researchers can openly share:
- Modelling approaches and tools.
- Input data and assumptions.
- Study results related to the South African power system.
Workshop 1 focuses on the basic installation and operation of the PyPSA-RSA model, including a detailed description of the pre-processing scripts that are used to generate wind and solar PV resource profiles for the model.
Workshop 2 provides a deep dive into the core PyPSA-RSA scripts that are used to assemble and solve a network. This workshop will also provide info on how to use the scenario input files to configure the model.
Resources