NEMDE Approximation

Australia's National Electricity Dispatch Engine (NEMDE) determines regional electricity prices and sets dispatch targets for generators and loads in Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM). This repository contains a model that seeks to approximate the operation of NEMDE. If you just want to interact with the model, and are less interested in model development, please see https://github.com/akxen/dispatch-api.

Key elements of the model's formulation have been inferred by analysing publicly available documents released by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). As NEMDE's mathematical formulation is not publicly available it is not possible to validate the approximated model's mathematical formulation directly. Instead, a data driven approach is used to evaluate the model's performance. This involves passing the approximate model of NEMDE historical case files describing the NEM's state, with the model using these parameters to formulate and solve a mathematical program. Outputs from the approximated model consist of prices and dispatch targets which are then compared with historical solutions reported by NEMDE. Close correspondence between solutions obtained from the approximate model and those reported by NEMDE indicates good model performance.

A Docker container is used run a MySQL database to store historical NEMDE case files and handle results outputted during validation runs. Use the following steps to test the model on your local machine.

Steps to evaluate model

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/akxen/nemde.git

2. Setup MySQL container environment variables. Rename mysql/mysql-template.env to mysql/mysql.env and set MYSQL_PASSWORD and MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD variables.

3. Setup NEMDE container environment variables. Rename config/nemde-template.env to config/nemde.env and update entries. Ensure MYSQL_PASSWORD in config/nemde.env is the same as MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD specified in config/mysql.env.

4. Use casefiles/zipped/download_casefiles.sh to download historical NEMDE case files. The TEST_YEAR and TEST_MONTH variables within config/nemde.env should correspond to the monthly archive you have downloaded.

5. Run ./run_tests.sh to test the model using the settings specified within config/nemde.env. It may take a some time (1-2 hours) to build the containers and upload NEMDE case files in the MySQL database the first time you run this command. Logs are stored in ~/logs by default. Update run_tests.sh to change the output directory.