Tutorials

To get started with MESSAGEix, the following tutorials are provided as Jupyter notebooks, which combine code, sample output, and explanatory text.

A static, non-interactive version of each notebook can be viewed online using the links below. In order to execute the tutorial code or make modifications, read the Preparation section, next.

Preparation

Getting tutorial files

If you installed MESSAGEix from source, all notebooks are in the tutorial directory.

If you installed MESSAGEix using Anaconda, download the notebooks using the message-ix command-line program. In a command prompt:

$ message-ix dl /path/to/tutorials

Note

By default, the tutorials for your installed version of MESSAGEix are downloaded. To download a different version, add e.g. --tag 1.2.0 to the above command. To download the tutorials from the development version, add --branch master.

Running tutorials

Using Anaconda

The nb_conda package is required. It should be installed by default with Anaconda. If it was not, install it:

$ conda install nb_conda
  1. Open “Jupyter Notebooks” from Anaconda’s “Home” tab (or directly if you have the option).
  2. Choose and open a tutorial notebook.
  3. Each notebook requires a kernel that executes code interactively. Check that the kernel matches your conda environment, and if necessary change kernels with the menu, e.g. Kernel → Change Kernel → Python [conda root].

From the command line

  1. Navigate to the tutorial folder. For instance, if message-ix dl was used above:

    $ cd /path/to/tutorials

  2. Start the Jupyter notebook:

    $ jupyter notebook

Westeros Electrified

This tutorial demonstrates how to model a very simple energy system, and then uses it to illustrate a range of framework features.

  1. Build the baseline model (westeros_baseline.ipynb).

  2. Add extra detail and constraints to the model

    1. Emissions

      1. Introduce emissions and a bound on the emissions (westeros_emissions_bounds.ipynb).
      2. Introducing taxes on emissions (westeros_emissions_taxes.ipynb).

    2. Represent both coal and wind electricity, using a “firm capacity” formulation: each generation technology can supply some firm capacity, but the variable, renewable technology (wind) supplies less than coal (westeros_firm_capacity.ipynb).

    3. Represent coal and wind electricity using a different, “flexibility requirement” formulation, wherein wind requires and coal supplies flexibility (westeros_flexible_generation.ipynb).

    4. Variablity in energy supply and demand, by adding sub-annual time steps - winter and summer (westeros_seasonality.ipynb).

  3. Post-processing: learn how to use ixmp and message_ix reporting features _after_ the MESSAGE model has run (westeros_report.ipynb).

Austrian energy system

This tutorial demonstrates a stylized representation of a national electricity sector model, with several fossil and renewable power plant types.

  1. Prepare the base model version, in Python or in R.
  2. Plot results, in Python or in R.
  3. Run a single policy scenario.
  4. Run multiple policy scenarios. This tutorial has two notebooks: an introduction with some exercises and completed code for the exercises.