Question about IRE_PRICE parameter and external regions in VEDA

[KristofferEML]

I have a question regarding the IRE_PRICE parameter and how external regions are handled in VEDA.

According to the TIMES documentation (Part II, page 72), the IRE_PRICE parameter is "Ignored if all_r is an internal region". In my current model setup, I've noticed that when I specify and import the IRE_PRICE parameter into VEDA, ALL_R ends up being classified as an internal region. I can see this in the output GDX file where "DKB" appears as an internal region (see snippet below).


My questions are:

1. Does this mean that my IRE_PRICE data is being ignored during the TIMES solve?
   


2. If so, what is the correct way to import this data in VEDA to ensure the external region is properly recognized?
   

For context, in another model we have set up the DINS table for an electricity commodity (shown below). How should this configuration be modified to ensure that the external region is properly placed under ALL_R as an external region rather than internal?


Any guidance on the proper VEDA setup for external regions and IRE_PRICE parameters would be greatly appreciated.

[Antti-L]

> Does this mean that my IRE_PRICE data is being ignored during the TIMES solve?

No.  The ALL_R index is actually redundant, because the price is process-specific, and therefore the region(s) on the other side is/are known from the TOP_IRE topology. Moreover, if there are more than one region on the other side of the process, there would be no way to differentiate the price according to those regions anyway, due to the design of the trade processes. Therefore, VEDA simply puts the R index into the ALL_R index, because it, in fact, effectively cannot be chosen by the user. (To do so was actually my suggestion for the VEDA developers, to eliminate possible user errors with this redundant index). Consequently, when using VEDA, the remark made in the documentation is no longer relevant as such (it may be if you use TIMES manually). The price is ignored only if the trade process is connecting with internal regions only, because then the trade prices are meant to be endogenous.

But of course, if you see some way of giving the ALL_R index some meaningful purpose, could you please describe how that could be implemented?

[KristofferEML]

Thank you very much for the clarification, it is helpful to know that the all_r index is redundant within IRE_PRICE. I don't see any meaningful purpose for ALL_R index. The approach make sense, except for the confusion caused by the TIMES documentation, which lead me to expect that it was the external region (i.e., 'IMP' and 'EXP') which should be written into the all_r index :-)