Revealed error in my input file during Switch upgrade

[Brad Venner]

Thought I should write this up in case anyone else is a stupid as me.

I'm migrating from Switch V2.0.6 to V2.0.8 and I ran into problems using the updated input files while creating an instance in the "no_commit" module. After spending waaaay too long in the debugger, I finally realized that the error was in my "variable_capacity_factors.csv" file - I had called the column "gen_max_capacity" instead of "gen_max_capacity_factor".

I have no idea why the earlier version let this error through. Nevertheless, I wonder if a "schema" check on the input files during upgrade might be a good idea. If so, I'd be happy to write up an issue on GitHub, although I'm not sure I would be the best person to implement this change.

[Matthias Fripp]

Hi Brad,

 

Thanks for pointing this out. Was the column always called “gen_max_capacity” and Switch 2.0.6 assumed some default value (maybe 1.0) for gen_max_capacity_factor, but Switch 2.0.8 threw an error? Or did the upgrade code somehow rename this column?

 

Preparing a complete, consistent dataset is one of the hardest things about setting up a new Switch model. We lean toward throwing errors rather than letting things pass, because otherwise misnamed or missing columns could get through without the user knowing. But the error messages are not always super-helpful. I’d like to add a friendlier data validation option that scans across all your data at once and says “you have these columns that aren’t being used, you haven’t provided these columns that are needed by these modules, and the data in this column is inconsistent with the data in that column.” It may take me a while to get there, though, so I’m happy to have volunteers!

 

Matthias

 

From: switch...@googlegroups.com <switch...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Brad Venner <brad....@vennerconsulting.com>
Date: Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 1:13 PM
To: Switch Model <switch...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [switch-model] Revealed error in my input file during Switch upgrade

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Thought I should write this up in case anyone else is a stupid as me.

 

I'm migrating from Switch V2.0.6 to V2.0.8 and I ran into problems using the updated input files while creating an instance in the "no_commit" module. After spending waaaay too long in the debugger, I finally realized that the error was in my "variable_capacity_factors.csv" file - I had called the column "gen_max_capacity" instead of "gen_max_capacity_factor".

 

I have no idea why the earlier version let this error through. Nevertheless, I wonder if a "schema" check on the input files during upgrade might be a good idea. If so, I'd be happy to write up an issue on GitHub, although I'm not sure I would be the best person to implement this change.

 

 

 

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