Parameter Name Column
Column Type = Text
The Parameter Name column is used to enter the parameter/settings in the Parameter Value column. Available options are listed below.
| USE CATEGORY | PARAMETER NAME | VALUE FORMAT | DESCRIPTION |
| Commitment Optimization | Allow Non Spin In Commit Op | Boolean | True allows non spin resources in commitment optimization. If False, non spin constraints will not be explicitly modeled in Commitment Optimization. |
| Commit Op Forecast Cost Adjust | Numeric | User override for the forecast cost calculation. The default is currently the Number of Periods in the First Day/Number of Periods in the Forecast Day. | |
| Include Storage In Spinning Constraints | Boolean | True will use Storage Resources in the spinning constraint in Commitment Optimization. | |
| Storage Hours Per Period | Numeric | This sets the number of hours for each optimization period in the month-ahead storage solve. When running with commitment optimization, where that initial month-ahead storage schedule will be re-optimized with the dispatch, this defaults to four hours when not specified. When running with traditional commitment, in which the month-ahead storage solve is the final storage solution, this defaults to one hour. Increasing this number can significantly improve overall simulation performance when many storage resources are present in the simulation. | |
| Use Hourly Dispatch After Commitment | Boolean | True turns on hourly dispatch after commitment. | |
| General | Allow Negative Fuel Prices | Boolean | If True, negative Fuel Prices will be allowed. |
| Default Optimize Annual Operation | Boolean | A global setting for all storage groups instead of setting up the Storage Table and using the Optimize Annual Operation column. | |
| Demand Curve Use Interpolation | Boolean | When True, interpolation will be used to calculate Demand Curve capacity prices. | |
| Fix Ramp Constraints | Boolean | When True, this switch fixes Ramp Resources at their output before the final prices are determined. | |
| Gurobi PRM Name | String | When specified, Aurora will search for the .prm file with the given name next to the running project. If not found, Aurora will search for Gurobi.prm next to the project. If a valid file is found, then Aurora will use the parameters for the study. | |
| Include Resource Level Emission Price | Boolean | When True, this parameter ensures that, for resources referencing an emission constraint in the Constraint Table, the resource-level emission prices are not overridden by the emission price set for the constraint. Instead, the resource-level emission prices will be included in the total emission cost, alongside the emission price from the constraint. | |
|
Increased Curtailment Cost |
Boolean | When False, the curtailment cost will not be increased for the solver's purpose. This is only suggested for cases that have high amounts of curtailment due to lack of capacity. Other settings may need to be adjusted in conjunction with this parameter (i.e, solution precision). | |
| IO Curve In MMBtu | Boolean | When True, the units for heat rate IO Curve Coefficients will be assumed to be in MMBtu instead of the default Btu. | |
| Keep Back Down Penalty | Boolean | When True, this will keep the Back Down Penalty in the formulation when Remove Penalty Adders from Pricing is selected. | |
| Percent Committed For All Output | Boolean | When True, Percent_Commited will be reported for all resources that have output. | |
| Reduce Optimization Noise | Boolean |
When True, this parameter activates logic throughout the simulation that seeks to minimize potential differences in the solution that might occur when the same project is run on different machines. The following steps are taken:
Note that because the solver can behave slightly differently on different hardware, it is not guaranteed that Aurora will give identical results on different machines. But it is much more likely when this parameter is set to True. |
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| Relax Min Start Hour | Boolean | A value of True relaxes the Minimum Capacity on the start hour of resources. | |
| Remove Random Resource Adjustment | Boolean | When set to True, the random adder that is applied to the dispatch cost of resources will not be used. This random adder is beneficial when there are resources with nearly identical costs and helps to differentiate resources. Repeatability of results may be impacted when not using adder. | |
| Skip Segment Sorting | Boolean | If True, Heat Rate Segments will not be sorted. | |
| Solver Threads | Numeric | This is an override for the number of threads that the solver (Gurobi or Mosek) can use when optimizing. By default it will use all of the threads on a machine. Using this parameter can be helpful in reproducing results on different machines that have a different number of cores. | |
| Use Charging Resource For Charging Cost | Boolean | When true, the incremental cost of the storage charging resource will be used to calculate the Storage Charging Cost. If multiple charging resources are defined, a weighted cost is calculated and used. | |
| Use Fiscal Year For Report Year | Boolean | When set to True, the report year column in non-study level output tables will display the fiscal year for the data instead of the calendar year. | |
| Use Single Output Constraint | Boolean | If True, one constraint will be used for all resource segments. If set to False one constraint will be used per segment. | |
| LT | Annual Curtailment Constraint Limit | Numeric | User override for the allowed number of annual curtailment constraints in LT. |
| Choose Lowest Total Cost for RMT | Boolean | When True, Aurora will choose the iteration with the lowest total cost for the final RMT. | |
| Energy Only Start RM | Numeric | User-defined starting Reserve Margin Target to be used in the first iteration in LT when reserve margins are not being used. | |
| Fix Peak Credit Vals Early | Boolean | True sets Peak Credit values in the dynamic peak credit logic one iteration earlier and will not update them in subsequent iterations. | |
| Include Ancillary in LT | Boolean | When True, Ancillary Constraints will be included in LT MIP formulation. | |
| Include Spin In Curtailment Constraint | Boolean | True will include Spin Requirements in LT curtailment constraint. | |
| LDC Solver Method | String | Set the LDC Solver Method used in the simulation to Interior Point or Simplex. | |
| Limit By Output | Boolean | When True, the bounds of storage operation LT MIP when using the LDC method will be limited by the chronological output. | |
| LT Buckets | Numeric | User override to set the number of LT "buckets", or dispatch intervals, used in the study. | |
| LT LP File Location | String | Enter the location to write the LP files for an LT Study. Must be the full path name, e.g., "C:\AURORAxmp". | |
| Use Commitment Feedback in LDC Solve | Boolean | True uses a feedback loop to refine commitment decisions for the purposes of the LDC solve in the constrained dispatch logic, which can give LDC results that are more in line with the chronological solution, but using the feedback loop will increase the run time. | |
| Use LT Curtailment Constraints | Boolean | When True, constraints to limit the Demand Curtailment will be used in the LT MIP. | |
| Write RMT to Output | Boolean | When True, the RMT and Capacity Price tables will be written to the output database. If Keep All Iterative RMTs is selected, additional RMT tables for each iteration will be written. See Write Input to Output for more information. | |
| LT Dynamic Peak Credit Monthly | Boolean | When True, the dynamic peak credit logic in the LT will calculate a different peak credit value for each month for each resource that has Use Dynamic Peak Credit set to True. Also, when this parameter is True, the Pool and Zone input column, Dynamic Peak Credit Hours will apply to each month instead of each year. | |
| LT Final Energy Max Iterations | Numeric | User override for the number of Final Energy Only Iterations allowed. For Reserve Margin LTs the default is 3 and for Energy Only LTs the default is 10. | |
| LT Final Energy Only Phase Include All | Boolean | When True, any candidate built by the LT solve will be eligible for removal during the final energy-only phase, which aims to eliminate units that are losing money. By default (False), only units not contributing to the reserve margin (if modeled) will be considered for removal at this stage. | |
| LT Reduce Largest Unit Adjustment | Boolean | When this parameter is equal to the default value of False, heuristic methods restrict partial-build eligible units from being built at large capacity values during the initial balance and later iterations of the LT. This generally prevents swinging the optimization too far in one direction, but when this parameter is set to True, more flexibility will be given for the full capacity of large partial units to be built. | |
| LT Skip Final Energy Only Phase | Boolean | When True, the LT logic will skip the final energy-only phase iterations, which aim to eliminate units that are losing money and not contributing to a reserve margin. | |
| Nodal | Contingency Islanded Bus Handling | Numeric | This controls what Aurora does when it encounters a contingency which creates one of more islands of individual buses. A value of 0 means that Aurora makes no attempt to adjust the contingency to fix any islanded buses (this is the default). A value of 1 means that it will attempt to fix only transmission buses (those without load or generation) which are islanded by removing one or more contingent branches from the contingency definition. A value of 2 means that it will attempt to fix all buses which are islanded by removing one or more contingent branches. Note that this processing is done up front whether or not the checkbox "Allow Contingency Islanding" checkbox is selected |
| LODF CSV Location | String | Enter the location to write the LODF files for nodal runs. Must be the full path name, e.g., "C:\AURORAxmp". | |
| LODF Tolerance | Numeric | Sets a tolerance value for LODFs. Values below this threshold will not be used in the contingency constraints. | |
| Remove Balance Relaxation Effect | Boolean | When True, the relaxation price for the Nodal Balance Constraint will not directly affect the final prices. | |
| Remove DC Line Relax Cost | Boolean | When True, this removes the DC Line relaxation cost from the final solve in a nodal study. | |
| Reset Nodal Constraints Monthly | Boolean | A value of True resets nodal constraints every month. | |
| Shift Factor CSV Location | String | Enter the location to write the Shift Factor files for nodal runs using shift factors. Must be the full path name, e.g., "C:\AURORAxmp". | |
| Use Int Var For DC | Boolean | When True, integer variables (on/off) will be used to model nodal DC Lines instead of continuous variables. | |
| Portfolio | Port Op Use Monthly Reserve Margin Targets | Boolean | When True, Reserve Margin constraints will be added for each month for the Portfolio Optimization. |
| Use LP in Port Op | Boolean | When True, Portfolio Optimization studies will use LP approximation. | |
| Storage | Keep Integers in Storage Solve | Boolean | When True, integer variables will be included in the month-ahead storage solve to model min charge and min generation limits. Default value is False. |
| Storage Use SOS Constraints | Boolean | When True, the storage solve will use integer variables to ensure that a storage project cannot charge and discharge simultaneously. The default storage logic (equivalent to False) will instead use multiple iterations to resolve any hours where storage is attempting to charge and discharge simultaneously. | |
| Storage Write LP Files | Boolean | When True, LP files for the storage solve will be written to a folder alongside the project file. | |
| Max Storage Iterations | Numeric | User override to set the number of iterations the storage solve will perform to correct instances where a storage unit is charging and generating in the same hour. Default value is 25. |
Parameter Name Column
