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General Setup

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Ben Winchester edited this page Aug 19, 2022 · 1 revision

Setting up CLOVER

Once you have downloaded CLOVER you will need to set up the code to run on your machine. You may need to install Anaconda and/or Spyder (available here) in order to run the code if you have not used Python in the past.

Dependencies

CLOVER relies on a series of Python packages in order to run. These can be installed using one of two methods:

Anaconda method """""""""""" To install using conda, from the root of the repository, run:

conda install --file requirements.txt

Note, on some systems, Anaconda is unable to find the requirements.txt file. In these cases, it is necessary to use the full and absolute path to the file. E.G.,

conda install --file C:\\Users\<User>\...\requirements.txt

Pip method

To install using the in-build python package manager, from the root of the repository, run:

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Setting up a location

Make a new location

Every location will require its own input files for the local generation, load demand and other factors. Locations can be set up in one of two ways:

  • By creating a new location from scratch and inputting all necessary information. To do this, call the new_location helper script with just the name of your new location:

    python -m src.clover.scripts.new_location <new_location_name>

    or, if on a Linux machine,

    ./bin/new_location.sh <new_location_name>

    or, if you have installed the clover-energy package:

    new-clover-location <new_location_name>

  • By basing the location on an existing location. To do this, call the new_location helper script with the --from-existing flag:

    python -m src.clover.scripts.new_location <new_location_name> --from-existing <existing_location>

    or, if on a Linux machine,

    ./bin/new_location.sh <new_location_name> --from-existing <existing_location>

    or, if you have installed the clover-energy package:

    new-clover-location <new_location_name> --from-existing <existing_location>

If you have an existing location, you can base your new location on this one. An example location, "Bahraich," is provided. To use this, simply append the --from-existing flag when calling the new-location helper scripts.

Get a Renewables.ninja API token

The Generation component gets solar generation data from another model developed at Imperial College London called Renewables.ninja which can provide renewables generation data for any location in the world at an hourly resolution and over several years. CLOVER automatically interfaces with the Renewables.ninja web interface but to do so you will need to register for an account at https://www.renewables.ninja/register, and use the API token in your version of CLOVER. This is found in the "Profile" section of your Renewables.ninja account. More information about the API is available in the "Documentation" page on the website.

Establish your location

First you will need to provide details of the geographic location being investigated. These are contained in the location_inputs.yaml file in the inputs/location_data folder. You can edit these in the CSV file directly, but here we will import the data and print it to the screen to see the input data for Bahraich:

---
################################################################################
# location_inputs.yaml - Location-specific parameters.                         #
#                                                                              #
# Author: Phil Sandwell, Ben Winchester                                        #
# Copyright: Phil Sandwell & Ben Winchester, 2021                              #
# Date created: 14/07/2021                                                     #
# License: Open source                                                         #
################################################################################

location: Bahraich # The name of the location
country: India # Location country
time_difference: 5.5 # Time difference, in hours, vs. UTC
community_size: 100 # Initial number of households in community
community_growth_rate: 0.01 # Fractional growth rate per year
max_years: 20 # The maximum number of years of simulation
latitude: 27.6 # Degrees of latitude (North +ve)
longitude: 81.6 # Degrees of longitude (East +ve)

Some of these variables should be self-explanatory: the location Bahraich is located in India. Others are less obvious: the time period under consideration has a maximum of 20 years (it can be less than this, but not more without modifying the code, so it is best to leave this as it is). Here we assume there are 100 households in the community with a household growth rate of 1% per year (0.01, expressed as a fraction). This is also where the Renewables.ninja API token should be copied so that other parts CLOVER can use it later - as this is private I have not displayed mine in the table above.

Some are sensitive to positive or negative values, for example the time difference of India compared to UTC is +5:30 and so the input is 5.5, but countries west of UTC should use negative time differences (e.g. Honduras would be -6). Latitude and longitude are defined as North and East being positive and expressed as decimals; these are easily obtainable from Google Maps, for example.

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