Download and installation

Requirements

Calliope has been tested on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Running Calliope requires four things:

  1. The Python programming language, version 3.5 or higher.
  2. A number of Python add-on modules (see below for the complete list).
  3. A solver: Calliope has been tested with GLPK, CPLEX, and Gurobi. Any other solver that is compatible with Pyomo, which Calliope uses to construct its models, should work.
  4. The Calliope software itself.

Solvers

You need at least one of the solvers supported by Pyomo installed. GLPK or Gurobi are recommended and have been confirmed to work with Calliope. Refer to the documentation of your solver on how to install it. Some details on GLPK and Gurobi are given below. Another commercial alternative is CPLEX.

GLPK

GLPK is free and open-source, but can take too much time and/or too much memory on larger problems. If using the recommended installation approach above, GLPK is already installed in the “calliope” environment. To install GLPK manually, refer to the GLPK website.

Gurobi

Gurobi is commercial but significantly faster than GLPK, which is relevant for larger problems. It needs a license to work, which can be obtained for free for academic use by creating an account on gurobi.com.

While Gurobi can be installed via conda (conda install -c gurobi gurobi) we recommend downloading and installing the installer from the Gurobi website, as the conda package has repeatedly shown various issues.

After installing, log on to the Gurobi website and obtain a (free academic or paid commercial) license, then activate it on your system via the instructions given online (using the grbgetkey command).

Python module requirements

The following Python modules and their dependencies are required:

Matplotlib is optional but necessary to graphically display results.

These modules are optional but necessary to display transmission flows on a map:

  • NetworkX
  • Basemap

These modules are optional and used for the example notebook in the tutorial:

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