Reorganize logging in Hercules

[paulf81]

Previously, selecting which channels to log was a little ad hoc, with options including "logging_options" and "log_extra_channels" floating around. This PR streamlines this in the following ways:

1. In the input yaml, each component can name which channels to log using the log_channels field
2. If this field is empty, or not there, power is logged
3. The field is a simple comma,seperated list
4. If one of the elements is itself an array (like turbine_powers), then specifying the array name itself (turbine_powers) will log every turbine power, while (turbine_power.001) will log only the power of turbine 1. This allows logging of some turbine information but not all, since logging everything can be a bottleneck
5. Previously, putting things into h_dict was contingent on logging, but now all values are inserted (in array form) and timing tests indicate this is no problem, and is much simpler
6. The default logging values which used to be hard coded are now shown in the exampls and docs
7. All tests, examples and docs updated to match
8. Rechecked timing to ensure no degradation in performance

Finally, some of the channel names in the wind components were standardized to make this simpler. For example, what used to be wind_speed, is now wind_speed_mean_unwaked to make very explicit that value implied.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR refactors the logging system from a fixed logging_option parameter to a flexible log_channels configuration. Key changes include replacing logging_option ("base", "turb_subset", "all") with a comma-separated log_channels string that allows users to specify exactly which outputs to log. The PR also renames wind-related variables for consistency (e.g., velocities → wind_speeds, wind_speed → wind_speed_mean_unwaked) and adds support for selective array element logging (e.g., turbine_powers.001 to log only specific turbines).

• Replaces logging_option with log_channels parameter across all components
• Renames wind speed variables for clarity and consistency
• Adds selective array element logging feature with .NNN syntax
• Updates all configuration files, tests, and documentation

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 34 out of 34 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
hercules/plant_components/component_base.py	Adds log_channels parsing logic to base component class
hercules/plant_components/wind_meso_to_power.py	Removes logging_option validation, renames variables, removes hard-coded log outputs list
hercules/plant_components/wind_meso_to_power_precom_floris.py	Same refactoring as wind_meso_to_power.py for precomputed FLORIS variant
hercules/plant_components/solar_pysam_base.py	Removes log_extra_outputs logic in favor of log_channels
hercules/plant_components/battery_simple.py	Removes hard-coded log outputs list
hercules/plant_components/battery_lithium_ion.py	Removes hard-coded log outputs list
hercules/plant_components/electrolyzer_plant.py	Adds removal of log_channels before passing config to Supervisor
hercules/emulator.py	Implements selective array element logging logic in HDF5 initialization and data logging
tests/*.py	Updates tests to use renamed variables and new log_channels parameter
examples/*.yaml	Updates example configurations from logging_option to log_channels
docs/*.md	Updates documentation to reflect new logging system

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[misi9170]

@paulf81 , overall this looks good, although I haven't yet done a really detailed run-through. A couple of suggestions jump out at me though:

• wind_speed_mean_unwaked : Consider renaming wind_speed_mean_background
• Currently, the log_channels field on the input yaml is specified as a single string, which is then split. I think a more standard approach would be to specify as a list of strings (this is how we do it in floris, for instance). Then, users can specify as

  log_channels:
    - power
    - wind_speed_mean_unwaked
    - ...

which might be a little easier both to read on the input file and handle within the Emulator code.

[paulf81]

@paulf81 , overall this looks good, although I haven't yet done a really detailed run-through. A couple of suggestions jump out at me though:

• wind_speed_mean_unwaked : Consider renaming wind_speed_mean_background
• Currently, the log_channels field on the input yaml is specified as a single string, which is then split. I think a more standard approach would be to specify as a list of strings (this is how we do it in floris, for instance). Then, users can specify as

  log_channels:
    - power
    - wind_speed_mean_unwaked
    - ...

which might be a little easier both to read on the input file and handle within the Emulator code.

Both great suggestions, I'll get these in!

[paulf81]

ok @misi9170 requested changes are in, and develop is merged in as well

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

Copilot reviewed 35 out of 35 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[Copilot]

The column name should be wind_farm.wind_speed_mean_background to match the new naming convention used throughout the codebase. The current name wind_farm.wind_speed_mean is inconsistent with the renamed variables.

Suggested change

	df["wind_farm.wind_speed_mean"],
	df["wind_farm.wind_speed_mean_background"],

[misi9170]

This example seems to have an unrelated bug: the inputs/wind_input.csv file referred to here doesn't seem to exist

[misi9170]

After talking to @paulf81 , this example is just stale and will be fixed in a separate PR (possibly #158)

[misi9170]

Looks good, thanks @paulf81 ! I left one suggestion below, but approving now anyway. I'm also happy to update if you'd like.

[misi9170]

I ran various examples with different configurations both of the list log_channels specification and with only certain turbines' data recorded, and everything worked fine for me. I'm in favor of merging when you're ready.