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11. Exploring RAINS-OPT

This part describes all options and windows of the optimization module in brief. We assume that you are familiar with RAINS EMCO and DEP for they produce the neccesary data input for OPT.

The OPT Main menu

The OPT Main menu provides the following menus:

• File>
• Edit >
• Optimization >
• Window >
• Help

Note: The > mark represents a sub-menu associated with that option (or item).

In the File menu you find all options handling with the configuration files (like open, new, save, ...) and program options like exit. The Optimization menu provides all options for running an optimization, and the Window menu allows you to perform window actions like Tile and Cascade.

File menu

On selection of the File option, the following sub-menu appears, with the options ..

• New session
• Open session
• Edit session
• Export session >
• Save
• Save as
• Close
• Print
• Exit

In the File menu you find all options dealing with the configuration files (like open, new, save, ...) and the global options like exit.

Edit menu

Optimization menu

On selection of the Optimization option, the following sub-menu appears, with the options ..

• Run solver - this option will start the solver
• Advanced > - this submenu enables you to store intermediate files and process them exogeneously:
• Generate LPD file
• Generate MPS file
• Run optimization (from LPD file)
• Run optimization (from MPS file)

The Optimization menu provides all options for running an optimization

Window menu

On selection of Window option, the following sub-menu appears, with the options ..

• Tile
• Cascade

The Window menu allows one to perform window actions.

Help menu

This option provides general help by loading the RAINS Table of Contents in a WWW-Browser. For more informations about this help system see 'Using this Manual'.

Important OPT windows

Each of these windows will be referred in the option descriptions wherever they appears.
Some of the windows used in OPT are described in the section 'Importand RAINS windows'.

All toolbar buttons

Here you find all toolbar buttons which are used in RAINS-OPT. Click on them to view the reffering description:

File selection window

Using this File selection window, you can load a file from a particular drive and directory and also use similar window facilities for deleting a file or providing name to create a new file.

On top left of this window the currently selected filename is shown. You can select the file from a list of available files displayed in middle rightmost (vertical scrollable) list window.

The CANCEL button (at bottom right of this window) will allow you to exit unconditionally from file selection window, that is to say without changing the present status of selected file.
OK button provides you a way to accept the selection of file and exit this window and the HELP button will display on-line help.

Menupath:

File / Open Session

Toolbar button:

Optimization window

This window is invoked by the Run optimization option. On top it displays the problem status (if it's feasible or not), below it the number of regions and in the center a table with the number of constraints for deposition and costs/emissions and the number of infeasibilities for them.

To start an optimization press the RUN SOLVER button, to abort this window press CANCEL.

Remarks:

If the specified optimization problem infeasible, there is no sense of running the solver.

Menupath:

Optimization / Run optimization

Toolbar button:

Problem specification editor

The Problem specification editor is used to define new or change existing optimization problems. It appears on selection of the Edit session option, or on selection of the New session option.

It displays it's status in the title bar: In case it's started from the Edit session option it displays 'Edit' (because you are going to change an existing problem specification), or 'New' in the other case.

Here you have the same 'notebook style' as in the Session window with various sub-windows:

• Specifications - defines global settings,
• Policy constraints - defines file names of policy target files,
• Deposition - for definition of the transport matrices and deposition constraints,
• Location - pathnames,
• Advanced - for changing settings, which depend on RAINS implementation (usually not necessary to change).

After you have defined everything in each sub-window you have to return to the Specifications window and confirm with SAVE to save this setting or abort the edit process with CANCEL.

Specifications

Here you define global settings, especially the target filename in the 'Problem specification name'-box on top of this window.
Bellow it you find the following boxes:

• Pollutants: You have the possibility to choose between various pollutant settings. Here you decide which pollutants in the optimization run should be respected.
  To select a setting click on the arrow on the right side of the combo-box and select the desired setting. The names are self explanatory.
• Year: Select the the year of the problem.
• Emission scenario: Here you may enter the name of a national cost curve definition, which was previously made with RAINS-EMCO. This cost curve must exist for the specified year and each region. OPT assumes, that the national cost curves to be stored in the user directory (as defined in 'Location'), in the subdirectory: &user_dir\europe\country_name\region_name\ .

NOTE: After you are through with all the changings you have to return to this window to confirm your changings with SAVE. But be careful using the old filename at the 'Problem specification name:'-prompt again. In this case, all old settings will be lost! So, you should give your changed specification a new name.

Policy constraints

The policy constraints are stored in files with the ending *.plc. They are assumed to be under the 'optimization directory path' (see Location).

Deposition

Here you define the location of transport matrices, created by DEP. They have the ending *.dbf and are assumed to be under the 'optimization directory path' (see Location).

The deposition constraints are either defined for eutrophication problems or acidification problems. They are stored in files with the ending *.dbf and are assumed to be under the 'optimization directory path' (see Location).

Location

In this sub-window are all file paths defined.

The data root directory contains all data for the current continent (in this case europe). It's default setting is C:\Rains7_2\Europe.

In the optimization directory are the optimization specific date stored, like policy constraints or deposition constraints. It's default setting is C:\Rains7\Europe\optm

RAINS-EMCO stores the national cost curves in the user directory. Thus, OPT also has to know this path.

The structure of the RAINS databases is described in Structure of the RAINS 7.0 energy- and emissions database, (Amann et al. (1993)).

Advanced

These settings are usually not changed. They may only change in the case, that you use another RAINS implementation (e.g. RAINS-ASIA) or for specific optimization modifications.

The default settings are as follows:

• Continent: Europe (For time being, this is not changeable.)
• Aproximations Tolerance: 0.02
• Transport Value Tolerence: 0.01
• Country file: country.dbf
• Regions file: regions.dbf
• Country Grid file: cou_grid.dbf

Session window

In RAINS-OPT, Session means the process of defining the complete set of specification of an optimization problem, and subsequently also the resulting problem specification set as such.

The Session window displays all settings and data of such a session. The Session window occurs after opening a configuration file (*.cfg) with the Open session option. It has the appearance of a 'notebook', with a staple of subwindows similar to the individual pages of a notebook.

The 'pages' of the notebook depend on the current state of your Session. During the first phase of the optimization session, i.e., before you have run the optimization solver, the notebook contains pages with

• Defaults, i.e., general settings of the particular session, such as the energy scenario, the year, the pollutant selected, etc.;
• Policy targets, specifying the ranges within the optimization may vary emissions; and
• Deposition targetsi.e., the upper limits on deposition which may not be exceeded by the optimization. .

During the second phase of your session, that is after you have successfully completed the optimization, two more windows with the results of the optimization will appear:

• Emission results, which contains all emission-related optimization results, and
• Deposition results, which enable you to analyze all receptor-related outcomes of the optimization.

You may start to modify policy and deposition targets from this Session window (using the Edit options of the Main menu).. However, it is not possible to change the 'Global' settings from here. To do this you have to use the Edit session option.

Remarks:

All emission values in these windows are total resulting emissions.

If OPT detects an existing solution while loading a problem specification and if it's time stamp is newer than the time stamp of the referring problem specification, OPT loads automatically the existing solution and displays it in the Session window without running the solver. However, you can run the solver again.

Subwindows:

• Defaults
• Policy targets
• Deposition targets
• Emission results
• Deposition results

Global settings

This window displays the following non-editable settings:

• Session Configuration file - the filename and path of the file containing the current settings;
• Pollutants - The pollutants considered in the optimization problem;
• Problem specification - The objective function of the optimization problem;
• Year of calculation - The target year for the optimization;
• Scenario - Name of the energy scenario assumed by OPT (Please note that the cost curve files for this scenario must exist!);
• Policy constraints file - Files where the policy constraints are stored (for SO2, NOx, NH3);
• Deposition file - Files where the deposition constraints (from DEP) are stored (for SO2, NOx, NH3), valid if only one pollutant is selected;
• Acidification file - File with the deposition constraints for acidification;
• Eutrophication File - File with the deposition constraints for eutrophication.

NOTE: While policy constraints and deposition constraints can be modified after loading the databases, the global settings can only be changed with the Edit session option.

Policy targets

This window displays the ranges within the optimization may alter emissions. By default, the upper and lower bounds of emissions are determined by the energy pathway and the technical potential for removing emissions for the selected pathway, respectively, as described by the range of the selected cost curves. The user may further limit the range of emissions by specifying (for each region individual) so-called policy constraints (e.g., to restrict the optimization to measures on top of current policies).

Policy targets may be specified for any pollutant considered in the current optimization problem. You may select the display of policy targets for other pollutants in the combo box in the top right corner of the window.

You can change the policy targets displayed in this window by selecting the Edit policy targets option of the Edit menu of the OPT Main menu.

NOTE: The policy targets displayed in this window correspond to the constraints specified for the selected optimization problem, for which an optimal solution might already be available (displayed in the Emission results and Deposition results windows). As soon as you modify policy constraints, the optimal solution might change accordingly. Since the optimization is not carried out automatically, the data displayed in these two Result windows will no longer relate to the specified targets. A corresponding message will be displayed in the windows.

The table in center of the window displays the ranges in which emissions can be reduced:

• Limits of cost curve - The lower and upper limit of emissions as determined by the cost curve (once estimated by EMCO);
• Policy constraints - A user-specified range within the optimization may alter emissions, in order to take into account, e.g., already existing committments on emission reductions. Policy constraints are expressed in absolute terms [in kilotons] and as percentage of the emissions in the base year. ) The policy constraints must be within the range of the cost curves.
• Resulting emission constraints - displays the resulting constraints for the optimization, i.e., the range common to cost curve and policy targets (in kiloton pollutant).

Deposition targets

This window displays for each grid cell target deposition specified by the user. In the optimization problem, these deposition targets are imposed as upper constraints on the calculated deposition. The optimizer identifies the allocation of emission reduction measures (within the emission constraints), which satisfies the deposition constraints at least costs.

You can select the desired deposition targets using the following specifiers:

Pollutant:

Critical load functions put constraints on total sulfur and on total acidity. You can select the type of constraints in the combo box on the top left.

Selection:

There are several ways of filtering the grids of interest out of the about 750 land-based grid cells considered in the model. The combo box in the top right corner of the window enables you to select:

• All selected grids - displays a table listing all grids selected for the specified optimization problem;
• All infeasable grids - displays a table with all grids, for which the specified deposition targets are not achievable (feasible) even with the lowest possible emissions specified as policy targets. If there are no infeasible deposition constraints, the table will be empty.

• By country - lets you select your country of interest and displays all selected grid cells of that country.

The table in the center lists all grid cells meeting the criteria specified in the two combo boxes above. For each grid cell, the following information is provided:

• the EMEP-coordinates (X and Y),
• the country name to which the grid cell belongs to,
• the total target deposition (including background deposition),
• the minimum achievable deposition, i.e., the deposition from the lowest emissions meeting the policy targets,
• the maximum achievable deposition, i.e., the deposition resulting from the highest emissions specified as policy targets, and
• the results of the feasibility check, i.e., whether the deposition target is feasible. If the specified deposition constraints cannot be achieved even with the lowest possible emissions, a NO is displayed in this field.

NOTE:

It is not necessary to specify deposition for all grid cells. In fact, a lower number of deposition constraints may speed up the optimization routine considerably. If there are no targets specified for the selected set of receptors, an empty table will be displayed.

Deposition targets can be edited directly in this window after selection of the Edit deposition targets option of the Edit menu in the OPT Main menu.

NOTE:: The deposition targets displayed in this window correspond to the constraints specified for the selected optimization problem, for which an optimal solution might already be available (displayed in the Emission results and Deposition results windows). As soon as you modify deposition constraints, the optimal solution might change accordingly. Since the optimization is not carried out automatically, the data displayed in these two Result windows will no longer relate to the specified targets. A corresponding message will be displayed in the windows.

After running the solver (see 'run optimization') or if the optimization problem has been solved in an earlier session and the results are still available, the results are displayed in the following two windows:

Emission results

This window provides source-related results of the optimization run. In particular, it lists the optimized emission levels satisfying the specified deposition and policy targets as well as information on the marginal costs for emission reductions. Furthermore, it displays the status of the optimization on top left of the window and the numerical value of the objective function on top right.

The combo box on the top of the window enables the selection of the pollutant, for which you want to display the results.

The table itself lists, for each selected country/region, the following information: The first three columns describe optimal emissions and costs:

• Optimal emissions - optimal emission level, expressed in absolute terms (kiloton pollutant) and as percentage [RED %] of the emissions in the base year;
• Optimal costs - the costs for achieving the optimal emission level;

To facilitate the interpretation of the solution, the next three columns (Emission constraints) provide information on the possible range of emission reductions (i.e., the emission constraints specified for the problem), and the relative position of the optimal solution within the available range:

• the Lower constraint - the lowest possible level of emissions as defined in the 'Policy targets';
• The Optimal solution , where the position of the optimal solution (the red line) in relation to the emission constraints (the left and right ends of the grey bar) is displayed in graphical form;
• the Upper constraint - i.e., the highest possible level of emissions as defined in the 'Policy targets';

Finally, two colums provide important information for the economic interpretation of the optimal solution:

• The Marginal costs of emission reductions at the optimal solution. The two columns display the marginal costs of emission reductions, i.e., the costs of increasing (decreasing) the emissions by one unit (kiloton) above/below the optimal level. This information is useful for a variety of analyses of economic aspects of optimal emission reduction strategies.

At the bottom of the table a line provides the total European emissions/costs (where applicable).

NOTE: The solution status is set to "Solution NOT up to date" if policy- or deposition- targets were changed after the currently displayed solution has been determined.

Deposition results

This window provides receptor-related results of the optimization run. In particular, it lists the deposition level after the optimization, the target deposition as well as the possible range of deposition determined by the policy targets, and the marginal costs/shadow prices of deposition.

The combo box on the top left of the window enables the selection of the type of deposition constraint (remember that critical load functions for acidification consist of constraints for sulfur and for total acidity!).

The combo box on the top right of the window (Selection) enables you to filter the receptors of interest out of the about 750 land-based grid cells considered in the model:

• All selected grids - displays a table listing all grids selected for the specified optimization problem;
• All binding grids - displays a table with all 'binding' grids, i.e., the grids, for which the deposition after the optimization is exactly at the specified targets level. Any change in deposition targets for these grids will change the optimal solution, whereas changes to the targets of the other - non binding - grid cells (within certain ranges) will not influence the optimal solution.

• By country - lets you select your country of interest and displays all selected grid cells of that country.

The table in the center lists all grid cells meeting the criteria specified in the two combo boxes above. For each grid cell, the following information is provided:

• the EMEP-coordinates (X and Y),
• the country name to which the grid cell belongs to,
• the deposition after the optimization,
• the total target deposition (here without background deposition),
• the minimum achievable deposition, i.e., the deposition from the lowest emissions meeting the policy targets,
• the maximum achievable deposition, i.e., the deposition resulting from the highest emissions specified as policy targets, and
• the shadow price for the deposition constraint. The shadow price reflects the change in the objective function (i.e., in total European abatement costs), if the value of the deposition constraint is changed by one unit (equivalent/ha/yr). Since only changes of 'binding' grid cells will cause changes in the optimal solution, shadow prices exist only for binding grid cells. If no shadow price is displayed, the shadow price is zero, and the coresponding constraint is not binding.

Start up window

When you start OPT, a Start up window appears with the title Start up window. This panel should help you getting started with OPT.

You can either create a completely new problem specification ( a session) or load an existing session file.
To create a new problem specification, press the CREATE A NEW SESSION button. This will perform the same action as the File / New session option of the Main menu.
In order to load an existing session press OPEN AN EXISTING SESSION. This will perform the same action as the File / Open session option.

EXIT will terminate OPT without doing anything else.

Remarks:

When starting OPT, the program loads a wealth of data into memory from a large number of files. On most computers, and particularly if you use a network, this reading may take some time.

References

Amann M., Bertok I., Cofala J., Klimont Z., Schöpp W., 1993: Structure of the RAINS 7.0 energy- and emissions database. IIASA Working Paper WP-93-67

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