Author: Patrik Schönfeldt

oemof.solph v0.5 released

We are happy to announce oemof.solph v0.5.0 (codename “Rigorous refactoring”) . This release brings an extreme shift towards more user focused design:

  • Clean definition of time indexes: You need N+1 points in time do define N time spans.
  • Parts of the energy system graph are now clearly structured into buses, components, and flows. This adds some extra words to imports but makes the underlying logic more transparent.
  • Public and private API are be more distinguished now. (‘_’ signifies private, public API is defined in init files.)
  • Experimental code is now sitting in sub-modules called experimental (replaces “custom”).
  • The flow arguments summed_minand summed_max now have the more descriptive names full_load_time_min and full_load_time_max.
  • Keyword arguments are now explicit. This will make it easier to find the correct arguments and will also catch typos. Custom attributes can be added using the argument custom_attributes. Those will be passed down the class hierarchy and can (possibly) be handled in parent classes.
  • Add inactivity_costs as an option for Flows. Inactivity costs is a cost for times where a Flow is not operated.
  • Examples are added to the documentation. (The format of the examples could be improved, though.)

Besides these changes, there is one big thing that has happened “under the hood”. It is now possible to combine NonConvex and Investment optimisation in the same Flow.

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oemof spring meeting 2023

we are pleased to announce the upcoming oemof user meeting, May 24th to 26th 2023 in Stuttgart. The meeting is open to all who use or develop the software, as well as interested new users. Thanks to the DLR site in Stuttgart for hosting us.

Being a community project, the meetings traditionally include the possibility to ask questions to fellow users and open discussion. We are happy to exchange ideas with developers and users rather than just promoting results. So let’s get together, share knowledge and inspire each other. Learn more about planned developments, find people to collaborate with on your projects and get your questions answered. We continuously gather information in the Meeting-2023.05 Wiki page (GitHub).

To register, just write an email to meetings@oemof.org. Please tell your name and (if applicable) your institution, your GitHub user name, and if you want to present something. Note that meals are self-paid as there is no conference fee.

What to expect?

Continue reading “oemof spring meeting 2023”

Things to come

Hack, eat, sleep, repeat: Our 2022-11 dev meeting was one big hackathon event where we joint forces to solve problems with the code. It was so intense, we even forgot to taka a photo. (We were some 15 very enthusiastic hackers.) There are a couple important decisions to be communicated:

  • The next release of solph (v0.5) is in feature freeze. We will just update the documentation and finalise making arguments explicit and release afterwards.
  • Multi-period optimisation and renaming Transformer to Converter will follow with v0.5.1 with a merge to mainline solph right after v0.5.0. The changed name will have a wrapper so it is not API breaking.
  • Stephan Günther, Caroline Möller, and Patrik Schönfeldt form the new board of the oemof association.
Letter to the register of associations

Also, today was an important day for the oemof association. After everything was agreed on by the general assembly on November 10th, 2022, the protocol as well as the statute were notarised and sent to the register of associations. By chance we also received the final documents needed to apply for our non-profit status. So, now we have to wait until things are processed until the association gets it final legal status.

oemof developer meeting November 2022

We finally opened registration for the omof developer meeting 2022. As suggested last year’s dev meeting, it will take place at Magdeburg University from the 09th to the 11th of November. One focus will definitely be on the next release of solph, but the agenda is kept flexible to meet the demands of the participants and will continuously developed at https://github.com/oemof/oemof/wiki/Meeting-2022.11.

Developer meetings are no closed shop but a great opportunity for a first contact for those who are considering to collaborate. In fact, it’s rather common that people join a developer before actively contributing. With this regard, the upcoming meeting is a particular good opportunity as there are a couple of freshly developed features also new to long-term developers.

To register, please send an email to meetings@oemof.org or post a comment at https://github.com/oemof/oemof/issues/100.

oemof general assembly 2022/11

Hereby we invite you to the general assembly (GA) of the oemof association. It will be held at the University of Magdeburg at 13:30 on the 10th of November 2022, as a part of this year’s developer meeting (9th to 11th of November). As we elect our representatives for one year, elections are the crucial point of this GA. To get used to the standard procedure, the agenda includes all typical points even if i.e. the financial report  will be really short. If you have further points to discuss, please send an email to meetings@oemof.org or post them at https://github.com/oemof/oemof/issues/105.

Proposed agenda

  1. Welcome
    1. Agreement on the agenda
    2. Acceptance of the minutes of the last GA
      (non-accessible, scan of a German printout for legal reasons)
  2. Annual report
  3. Financial report
  4. Approval of the actions of the board
  5. Election of the board
  6. Election of the auditors
  7. Infrastructure (e.g. website)
  8. Miscellaneous

Thank you for joining the oemof spring meeting 2022

We want to thank all participants of this year’s oemof spring meeting. It’s always a joy to have a few days reserved for concentrated discussions around the things you create and investigate using oemof. Some of you already provided their slides, these are now available in the collection of oemof publications.

Presentation held at the first afternoon of the meeting which took place in the meeting hall of the meeting hall of the Danish minority living in Flensburg.

This year’s spring meeting wasn’t only the biggest in-person meeting but also probably the most international one. It was located almost in sight of the Danish/German border. Some of the almost 40 participants arrived from Italy and Spain just for the meeting. Not to speak about contributions from people who stay in Germany for longer. This confirmed us in our decision to also keep the organisation of the oemof association in English. (Side node: It was in the middle of the association’s general assembly that we realised that the about ten persons joining that particular session were able to understand German.)

Special thanks also go to Simon and Uwe for the organisation, and to the Department Energy and Environmental Management for hosting the meeting at the Europa Universität Flensburg.

oemof general assembly 2022/05

We invite you to a general assembly (GA) of the oemof association that will take place on the 19th of May as part of the oemof user/dev meeting in Flensburg. The assembly will be located at the meetings venue (European University Flensburg Building VIL1, Auf dem Campus 1, Flensburg) and start at 14:00.

Agenda:

  1. Opening and welcome
  2. Agreement on the agenda
  3. Acceptance of the minutes of the last GA
  4. Changed statute
  5. Bylaws and membership fee regulations
  6. Miscellaneous

The changed statute can be found at GitHub (binding German version, informative English translation). The changes are marginal and probably required by the German authorities. We decided to let the GA decide before the authorities file a formal complaint. Formally, the decision will be on the full (changed) statute rather than the changes, as it makes live easier to have everything in one protocol. According to our statute, all members can already vote on the changed statute. To do so, you can leave a review (approve/object) at the PR at GitHub. Alternatively, you can write an email to patrik.schoenfeldt@dlr.de to get instructions how to vote by (paper) mail.

Solph 0.4.4: Capable Custom Components

Earlier this month, we released solph 0.4.4. It focuses on two new “custom components” (This is how we call in-developments components that are not yet part of the stable API.) There are:

  • PiecewiseLinearTransformer. A transformer model with one input and one output and an arbitrary piecewise linear conversion function.
  • Enhanced SinkDSM (sink allowing for demand side management)
    • Renamed keyword argument method to approach
    • Renamed approaches interval to oemof and delay to DIW
    • Added modelling approach DLR (PhD thesis of Hans Christian Gils 2015)
    • Included load shedding
    • Introduced recovery_time in DIW approach
    • Introduced shift_time and other parameters for DLR approach
    • Included investments in DSM
    • Normalized keyword arguments demand, capapcity_up and capacity_down

Further, some smaller changes made it into the release:

  • Check number of Flow s in GenericStorage
  • Allow conversion factor of zero for GenericTransformer
  • Split code into submodules
  • Move CI-Tests from Travis to github

New web page online

We are about to move oemof.org to a new web space. To allow for a smooth transition, the new page (this one) is already on-line. So, hopefully, the posts announcing the transitions here and there (at the old site) will be the mayor signs of the relocations. But there is more:

  • Improved control: By doing more on our own, we have more flexibility on what we do. Several times already, we came to the point that we wanted to implement something for the page but were not able to because of our web page plan. This will be different from now on.
  • Improved data protection: The first thing we use our newly gained power for, is sniping of the trail of your data to third parties. Also, hosting has moved from the US to Europe.
  • More to come: This is not planned to be a relaunch but a smooth transition. Honestly, I would not even write this if I did not have to test the post notification mailer.

oemof developer meeting December 2020

The next oemof developer meeting will be held from Wednesday the 2nd to Friday the 4th of December 2020. It will be an online event full of virtual workshops and discussions about technical and organisational aspects of oemof. One topic will be the current status of the “oemof foundation” (working title), which is planned be incorporated at the next in-person meeting.

Anyone who is interested is cordially invited to participate and to contribute topics. All topics including additional information will be collected at the oemof organisation wiki page for the 2020 December Meeting. If you want to register, please contact us in the according ticket at GitHub. You can also suggest additional topics at the same place, we will continue shaping the agenda based on your input at least until the 23rd of November.