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Inheriting from technology node groups: tech_groups, node_groupsΒΆ

For larger models, duplicate entries can start to crop up and become cumbersome. To streamline data entry, technologies and nodes can inherit common data from a tech_group or node_group, respectively.

For example, if we want to set interest rate to 0.1 across all our technologies, we could define:

tech_groups:
    interest_rate_setter:
        cost_interest_rate:
            data: 0.1
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
techs:
    ccgt:
        inherit: interest_rate_setter
        ...
    ac_transmission:
        inherit: interest_rate_setter
        ...

Similarly, if we want to allow the same technologies at all our nodes:

node_groups:
    standard_tech_list:
        techs: {ccgt, battery, demand_power}  # (1)!
nodes:
    region1:
        inherit: standard_tech_list
        ...
    region2:
        inherit: standard_tech_list
        ...
    ...
    region100:
        inherit: standard_tech_list
  1. this YAML syntax is shortform for: 
    techs:
    ccgt:
    battery:
    demand_power:

Inheritance chains can also be set up. That is, groups can inherit from groups. E.g.:

tech_groups:
    interest_rate_setter:
        cost_interest_rate:
            data: 0.1
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
    investment_cost_setter:
        inherit: interest_rate_setter
        cost_flow_cap:
            data: 100
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
        cost_area_use:
            data: 1
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
techs:
    ccgt:
        inherit: investment_cost_setter
        ...
    ac_transmission:
        inherit: interest_rate_setter
        ...

Finally, inherited properties can always be overridden by the inheriting component. This can be useful to streamline setting costs, e.g.:

tech_groups:
    interest_rate_setter:
        cost_interest_rate:
            data: 0.1
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
    investment_cost_setter:
        inherit: interest_rate_setter
        cost_interest_rate.data: 0.2  # this will replace `0.1` in the `interest_rate_setter`.
        cost_flow_cap:
            data: null
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
        cost_area_use:
            data: null
            index: monetary
            dims: costs
techs:
    ccgt:
        inherit: investment_cost_setter
        cost_flow_cap.data: 100  # this will replace `null` in the `investment_cost_setter`.
        ...