About DAVE

General

DAVE is an data fusion tool for generating individual energy grid models, integrating other enegry-related data and providing geographical information. DAVE is highly flexible, enabling users to select their area of interest and the desired datasets, with the tool promptly providing the selected data.

Why DAVE ?

Motivation

A significant aspect at the simulation and analysis of energy infrastructures are suitable grid models for simulatin tools. Currently, there are many sources providing open data related to grid-modeling. However, many of such datasets do not comply with the unique requirements of specific simulation tools.

One of the goals of DAVE is to fuse the exisitng open datasets from different data sources to provide a dataset with high quality for the user who does not have the knowledge in modelling and programming.

Other Tools

Exisitng similar tools rely on limited data sources for generation of energy models. In contrast to the existing tools, DAVE covers a big spectrum of possible grid model requirements, as the primary goal, and then extends the model with more details, as the secondary goal.

Open Data

A main aspect of DAVE is to deliver sustainable data and get the research community together to combine the expert knowledge. To accomplish this, an important factor is that DAVE is not restricted by any license or non-disclosure agreements. For that Reason DAVE is focused mostly on input information from open data sources. Also the tool itself is open source and licensed under a 3-clause BSD license. Therefore, the data retrieved via DAVE is open to use, modify and publish.

Availible Data

DAVE provides a broad spectrum of user-defined region-specific grid models, energy-related and geographical data. The current possible informations that DAVE can provide are listed in this page. For more detailed description of the data sources, the resulting data or the used methods, please refer to references.

Geographical Data

Geographical data are very helpful to derive a grid model, particularly on lower levels, or for planning a grid expansion in the areas where no grid information is avaialble. Also geographical data are sometimes useful in addition to your existing grid model depending on your analysis. DAVE offers energy-relevant geographical information integrated in a grid model as well as stand alone dataset.

Availible layers:
Buildings, Roads, Railways, Waterways, Landuses

Power Grid Topology

DAVE provides power grid topologies comprising grid nodes and lines for all voltage levels. Currently the topology generation is restricted to Germany.Extending it to other regions in Europe is in the plan.

Availible Levels:
Extra High Voltage, High Voltage, Medium Voltage,
Low Voltage

Power Grid Components

Electricity grids contain a large number of different components that helps the transportation, generation, storage and consumption of electricity. The complexity of the system increases proportionally with the number of resources. These components are available in DAVE for various levels.

Availible Components:
Transformers, Substations, Renewable and Conventional power plants, Loads

Gas Grid Topology

DAVE provides gas grid topologies comprising grid nodes and lines for high pressure. Currently the topology generation is provided for Europe. Medium and Low pressure gas grid is planned to be integrated to DAVE.

Availible Levels:
High pressure

Gas Grid Components

Same as electricity grids, the gas grids contain a large number of different components that helps the tranformation, generation, storage and consumption of gas. The complexity of the system increases proportionally with the number of resources.

Availible Components:
Compressors, Sources, Sinks

Additional Features

Combine Areas

In DAVE, there is a feature to connect areas that are isolated from each other. The user can select the mesh layers to be used for this connection via the “Combine Areas” parameter in the main function. To minimize the impact of the additional area used to connect isolated areas, only the network topology is considered.

Plotting

Another optional feature in DAVE is plotting the information retrieved from DAVE, visualized with geographic mapping. In this option, DAVE creates different types of plots, all of which have a basemap. Currently, three different plot types are implemented in DAVE. The first plot represents all collected geographical data. This gives a good overview of the considered area, independent of the generated energy network topologies. The second plot type displays the resulting energy network topology data. For this, there are two options to define the basemap. On the one hand, a map from OSM can be used as the base map, which is used for better orientation in large areas. On the other hand, the geographic information from DAVE can be used, especially the roads and buildings. The last possible type of representation is the representation of the land use areas within the considered region. This graph provides a good overview of the land use distribution in the grid area.

Output Formats

DAVE provides users with two data retrieval options. In the first option, users can receive the data in original DAVE data schema. In the second option, user can choose to convert the data to the scehma and format of a specific tool. For instance, when converting to Pandapower is selected, the output include a JSON file with Pandapower schema. This enables users to obtain data in original DAVE format and the format of a chosen tool for seamless integration with the other tool. The original DAVE data schema can be provided in three data formats as mentioned below:

  • JSON
  • GPKG
  • HDF5

Supported Tools

DAVE provides a data converter for the following simulation tools.

pandapower An easy to use open source tool for power system modeling, analysis and optimization with a high degree of automation.

pandapipes An easy to use open source tool for fluid system modeling, analysis and optimization with a high degree of automation.

MYNTS A closed source multiphysical network simulator for gas, transport, water supply and electrical grids.

Not the right one?
If your preferred simulation tool is not supported yet, please contact us, so that we can find a suitable solution for you. Incorporating new data convertor is always very welcome.

Licence

DAVE is licensed under the following 3-clause BSD license:

Copyright (c) 2022-2024 by Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE) Kassel and individual contributors (see AUTHORS file for details). All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2024 DAVE_core contributors

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted, provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

  3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.