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Guidelines for the Study Format

This document provides reference guidelines for the Antares_Simulator study format and should be consulted when making modifications to the format.

Input Files

All input files are stored in the input directory of a study. This directory is organized into thematic subdirectories (e.g., thermal, wind, solar, etc.).

  • If you introduce functionality unrelated to existing categories, create a new subdirectory under input.
  • Otherwise, place new files in the appropriate existing subdirectory.

File Names

File names must use only Latin characters. Non-Latin characters are not supported and may cause errors (especially on Windows, which uses UTF-16 encoding for local paths).

Floating-Point Number Format

  • Use a decimal point as the separator (e.g., 4.4 is valid, 4,4 is not).
  • Negative numbers must start with a minus sign (e.g., -5).
  • Scientific notation is allowed (e.g., 1e-4).
  • These formats can be combined (e.g., -1.3e-4).

File Encoding

  • ASCII is the default encoding for all files.
  • UTF-8 can be used when necessary (e.g., for non-Latin characters in file contents).
  • Note: file paths cannot contain non-Latin characters, but file content can use UTF-8.

Timeseries

Time- and/or scenario-dependent parameters are represented as timeseries, stored in TAB-separated text files. Each entry is separated by a newline (\n).

Number Types

Timeseries can contain integer or floating-point values (see Floating-Point Number Format above).

Dimensions

  • Timeseries can have 1 to N columns and any number of rows.
  • A typical choice is HOURS_PER_YEAR = 8760 (hourly values for a full year).
  • If multiple columns exist, all columns must have the same number of rows.

Empty Files

An empty file is treated as a single column of zeros with the expected number of rows:

0.0
...
... (repeated N times)
...
0.0

Parameters

Parameters can be defined using INI or YAML. For new additions, YAML is preferred.

INI

Example:

[section1]
key1 = value1
key2 = value2

[section2]
key1 = value1
key2 = value2
  • Keys must be unique within a section. This rule should be enforced for new additions.
  • Empty lines are ignored.

YAML

Example:

system:
  id: fr
  components:
    - id: gas
      model: standard.thermal
  • IDs can be used to reference objects and must be unique within the local scope.

Valid example:

parameters:
  - id: reservoir_capacity
    value: 1200
  - id: injection_nominal_capacity
    value: 300

Invalid example (duplicate ID):

parameters:
  - id: reservoir_capacity
    value: 1200
  - id: reservoir_capacity
    value: 300

Duplicate IDs are ambiguous and must be avoided.