Introduction

What are the scenario-tools?

The scenario-tools are a small collection of tools written in Python that allow ETM users to communicate to the ETM without accessing the web-interface. Input and output data is all in CSV format for easy incorporation in Excel workflows.

You can download or clone the tools from our Github.

To run the tools a Python installation is required, but working the tool requires no prior knowlegde of that programming language.

With the tool you can:

• Download scenario results and query e.g. dashboard items
• Create or update scenario slider settings and custom curves
• Compare scenario results for varying individual or combined slider settings
• Create a template of a scenario which you can use to create new scenarios
• Create a regional overview combining multiple scenarios

Input and output

The scenario-tools read input data, such as slider settings or requested downloads, from several CSVs that you must supply. This section gives a quick overview of what to expect.

By default, and when you first look at the tool after downloading it, the input and output folders are located in the data folder. The tool will read and write to the files in these folders when you run it. It is possible to change the default folder where input data is read or where output data is saved in the settings. Please note that the tool will still expect the input file names to stay the same. Also, the default settings for reading and exporting CSVs can be changed here.

Input

Dummy data in the input files

All input files contain dummy data, to give you an actual example of how the data should be presented. Make sure to clear the dummy data from the files when you start using the tool.

Each functionality of the tool requires its own input CSVs. The necessary files for each function will be described on the dedicate pages.

Here is a list of the files that can be encountered in the input folder:

• scenario_list.csv - Contains general information about the scenarios, such as the region and target year
• scenario_settings.csv - Contains the ETM slider values for each of the scenarios specified in scenario_list.csv
• queries.csv - Contains a list of queries (scenario outcomes) you would like to retrieve for each scenario.
• data_downloads.csv - Contains a list of data exports you would like to retrieve for each scenario.
• template_list.csv - Contains a list of scenario templates specified by its scenario ID
• regional_overview.csv - Contains a list of scenarios of different areas that will make up the region to be overviewed
• slider_comparison_settings.csv - Contains sets of start and future slider values and queries you would like to retrieve per slider set.

In addition, you may add CSV files containing custom supply, demand and price curves to the input/curves folder.

Output

The scripts create/update/query the scenarios in the Energy Transition Model and print the corresponding URLs in the terminal. In addition, depending on the tools of scenario-tools that are used, the following is added to the data/output folder:

• A scenario_outcomes.csv file containing the query outcomes for all scenarios, including a column containing the values for the present year and the unit of each query
• Sub folders for each scenario short_name containing the data exports
• A slider_comparison_results.csv containing the query outcomes per slider set as specified in slider_comparison_settings.csv

Getting started

Make sure you have Python 3 installed. Then, install all required libraries by opening a terminal/command-prompt window in the scenario-tools folder (or navigate to this folder in the terminal using cd "path/to/scenario-tools-folder"). All following examples of running the tool expect you to be in this folder.

Using pipenv

It is recommended (but not required) that you use pipenv for running these tools. When using pipenv it will create a virtual environment for you. A virtual environment helps with keeping the libaries you install here separate of your global libraries (in other words your scenario-tools will be in a stable and isolated environment and are thus less likely to break when updating things elsewhere on your computer) and this one comes with some nice shortcuts for running the tools.

You can instal pipenv with pip or pip3 if you don't have it installed yet.

pip3 install pipenv

Then you can create a new environment and install all the libraries in one go by running:

pipenv install

Using basic Python

Alternatively, if you do not want to use pipenv you can also install the requirements globally by running:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt