ESDL allows you to describe a list of carriers with parameters that are used inside your model
There are two types of carriers:
Commodities
Energy carriers
They serve different purposes but can be combined in the same model if required. Choices depend on the scope of the model.
The Carriers class is a collection of the abstract class Carrier. The Carrier class can have the following parameters:
an id paramater that is used for referring to carriers.
a name parameter to describe the name of the carrier.
a cost paramater of type GenericProfile (allows both a fixed value as a profile that changes over time).
a dataSource parameter to document the origin of the information you're using
The Commodity and EnergyCarrier classes are subclasses of Carrier.
Commodity
The Commodity class is an abstract class, with the following subclasses:
ElectricityCommodity: can be used for electricity. If required a distinction between different voltage levels can be made (LV, MV, HV, ...). A voltage parameter can be specified.
GasCommodity: can be used for natural gas, biogas, carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen (H2), and so on. Distinction is done based on the name parameter.
HeatCommodity: can be used for heat. If required a distinction between different temperature levels can be made (LT, MT, HT, ...). A temperature parameter can be specified.
EnergyCommodity: can be used for describing energy balances (expressed in Joules, independent of the specific commodity).
EnergyCarrier
The EnergyCarrier class has the following parameters:
an energyContent parameter: allows the specification of the energy content of the energy carrier
an energyContentUnit parameter: the unit of the energyContent paramater
an emission parameter: allows the specification of emission values per energy content
an emissionUnit parameter: the unit of the emission parameter
an energyCarrierType parameter: an enumeration with options UNDEFINED, RENEWABLE, FOSSIL
a stateOfMatter parameter: an enumeration with options UNDEFINED, SOLID, LIQUID, GASEOUS
An example ESDL file with this information looks like:
