Time-slice tool for capturing the characteristics of intermittent renewables

The temporal representation of renewables in energy system models can strongly influence results. With insufficient temporal detail, the variability of renewables is not well captured, often leading to overestimation of intermittent renewable uptake, overuse of baseload technologies, and undervaluation of flexible options. This tool was developed to establish an appropriate time-slice structure that accurately represents renewable characteristics. It selects a representative set of historical periods to model the temporal dimension. The tool is based on MILP and implemented in both Python and GAMS.