release

oemof.network v0.5.0a5 released

At the last user meeting, we decided that there should be more pre-releases. So, here we go: Today, there is a version “continuous clean-up” of oemof.network (github.com: oemof-network/v0.5.0a5, oemof.network · PyPI). As the code name suggests, it is mostly a clean-up without adding new functionality. However, the code quality improved quite a lot and we have prepared the deletion of code that is unused or seems to be unnecessary. So, please check out this alpha release to tell if we are wrong.

Update: Deprecating the use of network.Source and others in favour of network.Node only makes sense when the latter is really part of the public API. so, we’re at v0.5.0 alpha 5 already.

solph v0.5.1: Compliant Converter

Today, oemof.solph v0.5.1, code name “compilant converter” has been released. (Package at PyPI, Tag at GitHub). The most noteworthy addition is a new (still experimental) feature multi-period (dynamic) investment models. The code name refers to a small but maybe more evident change: The component Transformer is renamed to Converter. This is because people typically think of electrical devices when they hear the word “transformer”. However, as experienced users of our package know, the Transformer is neither meant to be (only) electrical nor bidirectional (as electrical transformers typically are). Thus, the more generic term “converter” is now used. (Note that we always had the argument “conversion_factor”.) To maintain compatibility for v0.5.0, there is a transitional wrapper that still allows to name the component “Transformer”. It will keep telling you about the upcoming change, though. Another usability feature is the presentation of the examples as part of the documentation. Also, we fixed error when calling oemof_installation_test as a console script. It turned out to confuse quite a few new users that it did not work as documented in the previous release.

We hope to have a fair balance between improvements in usability and new (experimental) features to make this an exciting release for all kinds of users. For us, it definitely is.

RC1 of solph 0.5.1

We have a release candidate for v0.5.1 (Package at PyPI, Tag at GitHub). There are some additions, but we also prepare for significant API changes that will come obligatory with v0.6. When upgrading from v0.5.0 to v0.5.1, there should be no changes required for you code. (This is not true if you use features that are explicitly marked “experimental”. Those may change without notice.)

Noticeable changes include:

The component Transformer is now named Converter.
You can now combine Investment and OffsetConverter.
Having energy stored in a GenericStorage can now have a cost.
You can now give an Investment object as the nominal_value. We considered this more intuitive than working with two mutually exclusive different keyword arguments.
Tons of improvements in the (still experimental) MultiPeriod optimisation.

Again, there are transitional wrappers, so nothing should break when updating from v0.5.0, using the new API should be voluntary (you get a warning) for now. It would be nice if you test if your solph v0.5 code still works with this RC. We are aiming for a final release of v0.5.1 by the end of August.

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.

oemof.tabular 0.0.3: New release on PyPI

We are happy to announce that we have released a new version of oemof.tabular. Oemof.tabular allows to create energy systems from tabular datapackages, which makes it easy to build models without writing a lot of code.

The focus of the release has been the adaption of tabular to oemof.solph 0.4.5. The following changes have been made:

Adjusted to new oemof.solph structure.
Allowed definition of costum foreign keys. Keys and related descriptors are now read from config files (.json) and can be adopted by setting environment variables using custom config files.
Added constraint tests for most facades.
Reduced number of imported packages.
Cleaned up the badges in README.
Moved CI services to GitHub actions.

The following issues have been fixed:

Fixed Link by not setting constraints that limit direction.
Fixed storage investment with existing capacities
Introduced a conditional to fix error when running datapackages with expandable links.
Fixed typo in the attribute variable_costs in facades.py.
Introduced marginal costs for both output flows instead of only one to avoid elimination of energy.

A detailed summary can be found here.

Hotfix: pyomo 5.7.3 release

We have noticed that the new release of pyomo has greatly increased the calculation time within solph.

A hotfix to this requires manual downgrading to 5.7.2 of pyomo.

TESPy v0.4.0 – Gibb’s Gallery and more

A new major version of TESPy has been published. The releases Gibb’s Gallery and User’s Universe feature major improvements in the software.

A new major version of TESPy has been published. The releases Gibb’s Gallery and User’s Universe feature major improvements in the software, amongst others:

Automatic documentation of your TESPy model with LaTeX. Examples are available in the oemof_examples repository, e.g. this report.
Generic user defined equations enhancing the flexibility in modelling.
Generic exergy analysis tool.
Export of fluid property data in a format, that can directly be used for generation of states diagrams in fluprodia.

On top of that, the core of the TESPy components has been reworked to lower the access barriers for new developers.

The new version also comes with an new API, therefore minor changes in your model will be necessary. Read about all changes necessary in the release notes of Gibb’s Gallery and the release notes of User’s Universe. You will find all new features available in those notes, too.