User constraints

User constraints are TIMES equations written by the modeler: a left-hand side made of terms on capacity, activity, flows, new capacity and so on, compared with a right-hand side. Veda writes them with two tags: ~UC_T gives the terms and right-hand sides; ~UC_Sets says whether each constraint is written per region or summed over regions.

Both are accepted in SysSettings, regular, NSV and generated parametric files, not in templates, transformation or trade files. ~UC_T tables are processed after all regular layers, so that parametric layers can modify them (processing order).

~UC_T

Columns

Column (aliases)	Meaning
UC_N (user_constraint)	Name of the constraint. Carries down; a row without one writes nothing.
UC_Desc (description)	Description of the constraint.
process and commodity filters	Which processes and commodities enter the constraint (filters).
Attribute (prmtr, parameter)	The UC attribute of the row's values: UC_ACT, UC_CAP, UC_NCAP, UC_FLO, UC_COMPRD, UC_COMCON, UC_COMNET, UC_RHSRT, …
Side	LHS or RHS, for terms on the right-hand side.
UC_ATTR	Dynamic constraint options: "<group>, <option>", e.g. CAP, GROWTH, NCAP, BUILDUP; the header UC_ATTR~RHS puts it on the right-hand side.
Region, Year, TimeSlice, LimType, Curr, Other_Indexes	Indexes, as elsewhere.
Top_Check	With a process and a commodity, the pair must be connected in the topology: a (default, either direction), i (as input), o (as output); n turns the check off.
conditions	attrib_cond, val_cond and the avc_* columns (conditions).
value columns	Headers made of ~-separated tokens (value columns): UC_CAP, UC_FLO~ELC, UC_RHSRT~2030, UC_RHSRT~0 (interpolation option), or region names.

When a value-column header could be read in more than one way, its tokens are assigned in this order: attribute, currency, limit type, region, side, timeslice, year, commodity.

The tag text gives table-wide tokens, typically the right-hand-side attribute and its limit type: ~UC_T: UC_RHSRT~LO. Region groups are accepted wherever a region is.

Example

A renewable-capacity floor in several regions:

~UC_T: UC_RHSRT2030LO
UC_N	UC_Desc	pset_set	UC_CAP	Bangladesh	Indonesia	Malaysia
UCE_GW-Solar	Solar	E_Solar	1	3.03	0	13.72
UCE_GW-Wind	Wind	E_Wind	1	1.14	0	0

Each row is one constraint: the capacity of the processes in the set (coefficient 1 in UC_CAP) must be at least the region's value in 2030. The region columns hold the right-hand side, whose attribute, year and limit type come from the tag text.

Soft constraints

When the option Create Dummy Imports for UC is on (Veda's user settings), Veda makes every user constraint soft: it adds terms on the dummy import process IMPDUCZ (two dummy commodities per constraint), priced by the dummy import price. Expect them in the data and the results.

~UC_Sets

~UC_Sets declares the region domain of the constraints in the ~UC_T tables near it: one constraint for each region, or one summed over regions. It is a one-cell tag: everything is in the tag text, ~UC_Sets: <set>: <regions>.

Tag text	TIMES set	Meaning
R_E: <regions>	UC_R_EACH	one constraint for each listed region
R_S: <regions>	UC_R_SUM	one constraint summed over the listed regions

Regions are a comma list, region groups, or AllRegions.

~UC_Sets: R_E: AllRegions
~UC_T: UC_RHSRT~LO

Periods and timeslices are set by the right-hand-side attribute, not by ~UC_Sets: its letters after UC_RHS say what the constraint is written for — R each region, T each period, S each timeslice — and whatever is not named is summed. So UC_RHSRT is one constraint per region and period, UC_RHSRTS per region, period and timeslice, and UC_RHS a single constraint summed over everything. The forms T_E:, T_S:, T_SUC:, TS_E: and TS_S: are accepted by ~UC_Sets but currently produce nothing.

Which tables a ~UC_Sets applies to. A ~UC_T table uses the nearest ~UC_Sets above it, or to its left on the tag row; R_E and R_S count as one. If there is none above, the sheet's first ~UC_Sets applies. An R_E: with no regions takes the regions of the sheet's first R_E/R_S that has some, and otherwise means AllRegions.

Always put a ~UC_Sets on a sheet with ~UC_T tables

A sheet with no ~UC_Sets at all gets no region domain from Veda.

~UC_GENT

Read together with ~UC_T tables. New models should use ~UC_T.