OpenMod workshop in South Africa tomorrow 11am-3pm SAST

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peter...@meridianeconomics.co.za

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Oct 27, 2022, 12:25:48 PM10/27/22

to openmod initiative

Hi All

Just a quick repost from the discussion forum in case anyone missed it.

Following the lead from the Open Energy Modelling Initiative, we would like to hold an OpenMod workshop in South Africa. We hope for this to grow into a platform where local analysts and researchers can share modelling approaches and tools, input data and assumptions and study results related to the South African power system.

The accelerating development of open-source energy system modelling tools in recent years has now reached the point where it opens up a credible alternative approach to more costly commercial tools that are often black-box in nature. It is now possible to produce analysis of high quality and to develop a wider participating modelling community, which builds confidence in results by enabling more effective peer review of work and therefore more effective feedback loops. The availability of open source models is also critical to build a consistent stream of new talent entering the space to ensure that energy sector analytical capacity can be retained and steadily expanded in South Africa.

We will be hosting a hybrid in-person and online workshop in Cape Town (venue currently being confirmed) on Friday 28 October from 11am-3pm. This will include lunch for those who are able to attend in person. We are excited to have presentations from the following colleagues:

Professor Tom Brown - professor for Digital Transformation in Energy Systems at the Technische Universität Berlin

Topic area: Experience with Open Energy Modelling, as well as an overview of PyPSA

Mr Max Parzen - Founder of PyPSA meets Earth and PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh

Topic area: Overview of the PyPSA meets Earth initiative

Mr Ronak Mehta - MSc candidate at UCT

Topic area: Multi-node Dispatch Modelling of the South African Power System Using Flextool

Dr Peter Klein - Senior engineer at Meridian Economics

Topic area: Overview of the further development of the PyPSA-ZA model that is in progress

There will also be time for more general open modelling discussions and learning from each other. The aim of this forum is to be broader than just PyPSA and therefore discussions on related open-source tools and data are encouraged.

If you would like to attend this workshop please RSVP to ndivhuwo...@meridianeconomics.co.za.