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Model Definition Settings

These core parameters define the overall model scope, planning periods, and currency adjustments.

Planning Years

model_periods

Type: List of 2-element lists [[first_year, last_year], ...] Required: Yes

Defines planning periods as pairs of [first_year, last_year]. The last year is used for demand profiles and technology cost vintages; costs are averaged over the full span of each period.

# Single period
model_periods:
  - [2025, 2030]

# Multi-period study
model_periods:
  - [2025, 2030]
  - [2031, 2040]
  - [2041, 2050]

This creates planning periods:

  • 2025–2030 (6 years)
  • 2031–2040 (10 years)
  • 2041–2050 (10 years)

How periods are used

  • Demand: Uses the last year of each period (e.g., 2030 demand for 2025–2030)
  • New-build costs: Averaged across the full period (e.g., 2025–2030 capital costs are mean values over those years)
  • Retirements: A generator is retired if its expected retirement year falls before the end of a period

Legacy format

Planning periods can also be defined as two separate parallel lists:

model_year: [2030, 2040, 2050]
model_first_planning_year: [2025, 2031, 2041]

Each position in model_year is paired with the corresponding entry in model_first_planning_year. model_periods is preferred because it defines each period in one place, which reduces the risk of list-length mismatches.

Currency Conversion

target_usd_year

Type: Integer Required: Yes Example: 2023

All monetary values are converted to this base year USD using CPI data.

target_usd_year: 2023

PowerGenome loads CPI data from data/cpi_data/ to perform conversions. Technology costs from ATB (in their native years) and EIA data (various years) are all normalized to this target year.

Time Zone

utc_offset

Type: Integer Required: No Default: 0 Example: -8

Hour offset from UTC for the model timezone. All time-series data is stored in UTC and converted using this offset.

utc_offset: -8  # Pacific Time (UTC-8)

US time zones:

  • Pacific: -8
  • Mountain: -7
  • Central: -6
  • Eastern: -5

Example Configuration

Complete model definition for a multi-period study:

# Planning horizon
model_periods:
  - [2025, 2030]
  - [2031, 2040]
  - [2041, 2050]

# Currency
target_usd_year: 2023

# Time zone
utc_offset: -8