How to Create subsectors

[mbr1818]

I am working with the EPAUS9rT model from theUS EPA. It is a 9-region model that consists roughly of the electric, transportation, commercial, residential, and industrial sectors. Emissions for CO2, SO2, NOX, & PM2.5 are aggregated by sector and reported in VEDA-BE.

The industrial sector is comprised of 8 subsectors that are not yet created (paper, food, metal, etc...) consisting of roughly 1000 technologies that are labeled consistently but not grouped in the model. I would like to create these 8 sub-sectors in the model and then tax their emissions at various levels in each of the 9-regions.

The SysSettings file has a commodity sheet that lists all of the commodity set memberships NRG, ENV, and MAT, however, all the specific information for industrial technologies is in a separate industrial sector BY Template.

I am a bit stuck after reading Part II of the TIMES documentation. I am wondering - with a big model like this is there a best practice for creating subsectors that contain hundreds of technologies? I have been reading a lot about sets but having some trouble applying that information to my particular problem. Any suggestions on how to get started would be greatly appreciated.

[Antti-L]

There are only a few TIMES attributes that operate on process groups, e.g. GR_VARGEN and GR_GENFR.
Thus, in general there is no useful way of creating "subsectors" by defining sets of processes in TIMES. You can only do that in VEDA, where you can then use those process sets in Scenario files for defining attributes. See Part IV, p. 113–114.

But you can also easily create virtual sets of processes "on-the-fly" by using process filters.

I would like to create these 8 sub-sectors in the model and then tax their emissions at various levels in each of the 9-regions.

Ok, assume that all the processes named IP* belong to the pulp and paper subsector, those named IC* belong to the chemical subsector, and so on. If you have any such naming convention, you can easily define a tax on their emissions at various levels in each of the 9 regions.  See an example below, where the TFM_INS table defines taxes on the INDCO2 emissions of the processes in the pulp and paper subsector, at various levels in each of the (two) regions.
   
Note that the example above of course only works if you have defined the emissions by using FLO_EMIS (Attrib_cond). If you have defined the emissions also in the process topology, you could improve the filtering further by adding "O" into the Top_Check column, or by putting INDCO2 also into the Pset_CO column, to avoid any superfluous parameters being inserted.

[mbr1818]

hi Antti,

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It has been very helpful and I am hoping to be able to use the method you suggested. One thing I am a little stuck on is determining how/if emissions are defined as FLO_EMIS in this model. I have looked in SysSettings and in the scenario files used to build the EPAUS9rT workbooks but can't seem to find where the FLO_EMIS might be defined.

I have also been looking in the supported attributes and I see under the Alias column the ENV_ACT are listed in the FLO_EMIS+ row. Does this mean that the emissions are intact FLO_EMIS in this model? I have attached a screen shot.

Thank you again,

Mike

[Antti-L]

Well, if you don't know how emissions are modelled in your model, I feel helpless. But I also think the modeller should know such characteristics of his/her own model. If you have not created the model yourself, I would expect that you at least have some documentation or colleagues to ask where and how the emissions are defined?

I don't think emissions would be defined in SysSettings according to any good practice.

Does this mean that the emissions are intact FLO_EMIS in this model?

I don't understand what this question is about. What do you mean by "emissions are intact FLO_EMIS"?

My answer to your question about creating subsectors was that you can do that within VEDA, as I tried to point out. Did you read the documentation on VEDA?

[mbr1818]

hi Antti,

Thanks for your message. One challenge with the EPAUS9rT model is that it is brand new and there is not any existing documentation for it yet. As a result sometimes it is difficult for a new user such as myself to figure out relatively straight forward characteristics about the model.

I have read the documentation in VEDA. I will spend more time figuring out how the emissions are defined. I wrote "infact FLO_EMIS in this model", but autocorrect changed it my apologies. I will spend some more time trying to figure this out.

Thank you,

Mike