The Spreadsheet Energy System Model Generator allows the modeling and optimization of energy systems without the need for programming skills. The components defined in this spreadsheet are defined with the included Python program and the open source Python library "oemof", assembled to an energy system and optimized with the open source solver "cbc".
Structure of Energy Systems
Energy systems in the sense of the Spreadseet Energy System Model Generator are designed according to the specifications of the oemof library. Accordingly, energy systems can be represented with the help of mathematical graph theory. Thus, energy systems are exemplified as "graphs" consisting of sets of "vertices" and "edges". In more specific terms, vertices stand for components and buses while directed edges connect them. The status variable of the energy flow indicates which amount of energy is transported between the individual nodes at what time. Possible components of an oemof energy system are
- sources,
- sinks,
- transformers, and
- storages.
Buses furthermore form connection points of an energy system. The graph of a simple energy system consisting of each one source, one transformer, one sink, as well as two buses, could look like the example displayed in the following figure.
Graph of a simple energy system, consisting of one source, two buses, one transformer, and one a sink