Declarations (RES templates)

These tags build the Reference Energy System: they declare commodities and processes, connect them, and give them their base data. They are used in base-year templates (VT_*) and technology repositories (SubRES_*); ~FI_Comm is also accepted in SysSettings.

Declaration tables take names literally: no wildcards here.

Declare each process and commodity exactly once

Declarations are read in parallel. If the same commodity or process is declared twice with different characteristics (for example two timeslice levels), the result can change from one sync to the next, and cases that combine different files can end up with different definitions. For large models, a good practice is to declare all commodities in one place, such as SysSettings.

Commodity Definition Table (~FI_COMM)

Declares commodities and their non-numeric characteristics. One row per commodity.

Column (aliases)	Meaning
Csets (cset, sets, set)	Commodity type: NRG (energy), MAT (material), DEM (demand service), ENV (emission), FIN (financial). Carries down: an empty cell takes the value above; if the first row is empty, or the table has no Csets column, NRG.
Region	Region(s), comma list allowed. Empty: in a VT_ file the regions of its book; in SysSettings all regions. Not allowed in SubRES (regions come from ~TFM_AVA-C).
CommName (commodity)	Commodity name.
CommDesc (description)	Description.
Unit	Unit label. Empty: the sector default of ~DefUnits.
LimType (bd)	Sense of the commodity balance: LO (production ≥ consumption), FX (=), UP (≤), N (no balance). Leave empty for the TIMES default: LO for NRG, DEM, ENV; FX for MAT and FIN.
CTSLvl (tslvl, timeslicelevel)	Timeslice level of the balance: ANNUAL (default), SEASON, WEEKLY, DAYNITE.
PeakTS (peaktimeslice)	Timeslices for peak monitoring: ANNUAL (default) or a comma list of timeslices.
CType (type, commoditytype)	Electricity and heat subtypes: ELC, HTHEAT, LTHEAT.

~FI_Comm
Csets	CommName	CommDesc	Unit	CTSLvl	CType
NRG	COA	Solid fuels	PJ	ANNUAL
	ELC	Electricity	PJ	DAYNITE	ELC
	HET	District heat	PJ	SEASON	LTHEAT
ENV	CO2	Carbon dioxide	kt

CHP outputs need CType

TIMES recognises the electricity output of a CHP plant by its type, not its name. The electricity commodity must have CType ELC, and the heat commodity LTHEAT or HTHEAT; otherwise CHP ratios do not bind.

Veda adds these commodities to every region of every model, so they can be used without being declared:

• the commodities of TIMES's climate module: CH4-ATM, CH4-LO, CH4-MT, CH4-PPB, CH4-UP, CO2-ATM, CO2-GTC, CO2-LO, CO2-PPM, CO2-UP, DELTA-ATM, DELTA-LO, FGS-CON, FGS-MT, FORC-CH4, FORC-CO2, FORC-FGS, FORC-KYO, FORC-N2O, FORCING, N2O-ATM, N2O-LO, N2O-MT, N2O-PPB, N2O-UP;
• the commodity-type groups NRG, MAT, DEM, ENV, FIN and the process-side groups NRGI, NRGO, MATI, MATO, DEMI, DEMO, ENVI, ENVO, FINI, FINO;
• ACT, the activity of a process.

Process Definition Table (~FI_PROCESS)

Declares processes and their non-numeric characteristics. One row per process. Numbers (costs, efficiencies, lifetimes, bounds) do not go here: they go in ~FI_T or in the insert and update tags.

Column (aliases)	Meaning
Sets (set)	Process type, comma list allowed: ELE (power plant), CHP, HPL (heat plant), PRE (generic), DMD (demand device), IMP, EXP, MIN, IRE (inter-regional trade), STG, STS, STK, NST, IPS (storage types), … Carries down; if the first row is empty, or the table has no Sets column, PRE.
Region	Region(s), comma list allowed. Empty: the regions of the file's book. Not allowed in SubRES (regions come from ~TFM_AVA).
TechName (process)	Process name, up to 32 characters; keep to 27, as Veda adds suffixes for some generated processes.
TechDesc (description)	Description, up to 255 characters.
Tact (activityunit)	Activity unit. Empty: the sector default of ~DefUnits.
Tcap (capacityunit)	Capacity unit. Empty: the sector default.
Tslvl (timeslicelevel)	Operational timeslice level. Empty: DAYNITE for ELE and CHP, SEASON for HPL (when SysSettings' ~TimeSlices has those levels), ANNUAL otherwise.
PrimaryCG (pcg)	The primary commodity group, which defines the activity. Usually left empty: Veda then uses the energy outputs (NRGO). Takes one commodity name or one group (NRGO, NRGI, DEMO, DEMI, MATO, …); a comma list is not valid here.
Vintage	YES to track vintages; default NO.

~FI_Process
Sets	TechName	TechDesc	Tact	Tcap	Tslvl
MIN	MINCOA1	Domestic coal supply, step 1	PJ	PJa	ANNUAL
ELE	ECOAST	Coal steam plant	PJ	GW	DAYNITE
	EGASCC	Gas combined cycle	PJ	GW

Different capacity and activity units need CAP2ACT

Tact and Tcap are labels. TIMES assumes one unit of capacity produces one unit of activity per year. If they differ, give the factor (CAP2ACT, TIMES PRC_CAPACT) in ~FI_T: 31.536 for GW and PJ, 8.76 for GW and TWh. Without it, a 1 GW plant can produce 1 PJ a year.

Set PrimaryCG only when the activity is not the obvious energy output: processes whose costs are per unit of input, sinks with no energy output (set it to the consumed commodity), or processes whose only output is an emission.

Flexible Import Table (~FI_T)

~FI_T connects processes to commodities (the topology) and gives them their numbers, in a layout that follows the source data. It is used in VT_* and SubRES_* files. Data is imported as given, without rules or filters.

A ~FI_T table has two parts:

• Index columns on the left, with known headers, say what each row is about.
• Value columns on the right, whose headers say what the numbers are: an attribute, possibly qualified by year, limit type, timeslice, currency or region (INVCOST, ACT_BND~UP~2030, PASTI~2015).

The tag cell may sit above any column (~FI_T is a floating tag); a common convention puts it above the first value column, which visually separates the two parts.

Index columns

Column (aliases)	Meaning
TechName (process, pset_pn)	Process. Carries down: rows below with an empty cell belong to the same process.
Comm-IN (comm_in, commodity-in, …)	Main input commodity (comma list allowed).
Comm-OUT (comm_out, commodity-out, …)	Main output commodity (comma list allowed).
Comm-IN-A, Comm-OUT-A	Auxiliary inputs and outputs (comma lists allowed).
Attribute (parameter, attr)	Attribute, when values are given row-wise.
Commodity (commname, cset_cn)	Commodity of the value, when it is not the in/out commodity.
Region	Region(s), comma list allowed.
Year (yr), TimeSlice (ts), LimType (bd)	Comma lists allowed: one value per combination.
Curr (currency)	Currency.
Other_Indexes (commgrp, commodity_group)	Extra index required by some attributes (a commodity group, a curve number, …).
Stage, SOW	Stochastic stage and state of the world.

How the rows are read

• Topology. Each Comm-IN, Comm-OUT, Comm-IN-A or Comm-OUT-A cell connects the row's process to that commodity. A row with topology and no values still declares the connection. A second output on the row below (Comm-OUT only) adds it to the topology.
• Main versus auxiliary flows. An efficiency (EFF) relates the commodities in Comm-IN to those in Comm-OUT. Any other flow the process has — a utility, a co-product, captured CO2, the electricity of a heat plant — goes in Comm-IN-A / Comm-OUT-A, with INPUT / OUTPUT coefficients.
• Which commodity a value belongs to. The Commodity column if given; otherwise the first of Comm-OUT, Comm-OUT-A, Comm-IN, Comm-IN-A — or Comm-IN first, for attributes that are about inputs.
• Comma lists in index columns give one value per combination.
• Regions. Empty: the regions of the file's book. In base templates, a value for a region where the process is not declared is reported ("The process is not defined for this region") and dropped.
• Defaults for every other empty index follow Defaults for empty indexes.

Tag text

The tag text sets table-wide defaults with ~-separated tokens: ~FI_T: USD24 (currency), ~FI_T: UP (limit type of every attribute that has one), ~FI_T: MEUR2000~FX. A qualifier in a column header overrides it (tag text).

Example

~FI_T: USD24
TechName	Comm-IN	Comm-OUT	EFF	INVCOST	LIFE	ACT_BNDUP2030
EGASCC	GAS	ELC	0.58	950	30
ECOAST	COA	ELC	0.38	1800	40	120
		CO2

The third row adds CO2 as an output of ECOAST. Costs are in USD24.

Pitfalls

• Currency. Without a currency on the tag or in the header, costs are in the model's default currency, and TIMES converts them.
• Explicit zeros are written to TIMES as "given as zero" and change TIMES defaults (a peak contribution of 0 does not get the default 1). Leave the cell empty to give nothing.
• Switching a process off. A process (in a template or a repository) whose START, EFF or LIFE data add up to zero in a region is removed from the model in that region, and so is a flow whose input or output data add up to zero.
• Comment rows. A cell starting with * makes the row a comment in TechName, Attribute, Year, LimType, TimeSlice, Curr, Other_Indexes, Stage and SOW, but not in Region or the commodity columns. \I: works in all of them (comment rows).