Features
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Fast and
User-Friendly
Nobody wants to spend ages waiting to see the outcome of their "what-ifs". That's why the EleVisioNZ code is designed from the ground up to run lightning fast. Need to run a whole family of scenarios? That's fast too.
And we're user-friendly, with info-boxes and tooltips, and graduated examples to guide novices through the process, and tutorials and videos for power-users.
Accurate
minute-by-minute
simulations
This is the end of hand-waving and back-of-the-envelope estimates. Your model runs at a 5 minute step-size, the same time-step used by the real network to match supply and demand. It doesn't matter whether you're simulating a day or a decade. It's all done to the same 5-minute accuracy.
Cloud-based:
Setup, Run, Save and Share from Your Browser
There's nothing to download or install. It all runs on our servers, on our website, in your browser. Make an anonymous run, or log in to be able to store, retrieve and share your what-if scenarios, runs, and results. Think you have an interesting contribution. Post it on the EleVisioNZ forum, and optionally let other users comment, like and clone your setup.
Use Real Historic Data or Set Up Your Own Stress Test
We're committed to accurate and valid simulations. That's why we have years of historic data for you to use in your runs. You'll be modeling with real, regionalized weather data--wind, rainfall, river inflows, insolation (sunshine), so you can see, for example, the outcome of hypothetical shifts to more renewable generation under real, historic, New Zealand weather conditions. And you'll have accurate demand data. That frigid winter night in Southland when demand shot up? It's in there!,
Alternatively, you can set up your own stress tests. Challenge your generation setup with computer-generated synthetic data like a cloudy summer or a dry winter.
Modify:
Add and Delete Electricity
Generation
The default settings simulate New Zealand's current mix of hydroelectric, thermal, geothermal, wind, and solar generation. But you can change it with a few clicks. Switch off 400MW of coal at Huntly? Easy. Add 1000MW of solar PV in Northland? Also easy. Now shift half of it to Marlboro. Which is better? Can you gain some synergies from 100MWh/100MW of battery storage?Try it! Did you make an interesting discovery? Save and share it on the cloud-based platform.
Modify some more: Model Future Changes to Demand
We know demand will change in the future. Electric transport...bigger data centers...green steel. It's all coming, and it all needs electricity. Easily set up the where, when and how much of future demand, make a run, and find out how the network copes. When will we black out without new sources of supply? Could solar, wind and batteries transform our use of hydroelectric storage. How much intermittent oversupply do we produce that could be used as "free energy" to make high value products? Try some runs and find out!
Learn:
Quickstarts for Novices or Deep-Dives for Power-Users
If you're a novice, you can instantly try one of our pre-built scenarios to get a feel for the capabilities of the system. Then read or watch a tutorial to see how you can start modifying a setup to create your own. Also, in our learning center, you'll find resources to help you understand electricity supply at the level you need. What's a megawatt? How is it different from a megawatt-hour? What's a ramp rate? What's the projected price for solar panels and how has it changed over time?
Visualize Results
and get
Clear Reports
EleVisioNZ is visual! Intuitive colorful graphics make the results of your run come alive. Watch your run fast-step through time and see the hydroelectric storage lakes filling and emptying. Feel the anxiety when a cloudy summer doesn't deliver the solar power you expected.
And, get clear, plain-language reports that both summarize the big picture and drill down into the gritty detail at the level you choose. Want to download or share your report? Go for it, no problem. It's yours. PDF, DOC, XLS, CSV? All the results are there in all the formats you want.
Your Timescale
Do a simulation run on 10 years worth of data to see the big picture. Or run on that crazy January when we didn't get our usual dose of sunshine. You choose your timescale--whether it's hours, days, weeks, months or years. Zoom out to see the highlights, like periods of over or undersupply. Or zoom in to get a detailed look at the when, what, why and how of a particular event.
State-of-the-art
These days, AI, blockchain, and biotech are the talk of the town. Electrical network simulation might seem old school. But that's far from true.
Several uses for AI present themselves, e.g.
A deep learning neural net to predict upcoming demand and minimize short-term supply/demand mismatches that harm the network.
A Reinforcement Learning AI that learns to choose and ramp generation sources to minimize cost, or CO2.
A GAN (generative adversarial network) to generate synthetic weather or demand data modeling codependencies (e.g. make air-conditioning demand higher on hotter days).
Free, open source, open access
Free (not freemium). Open source. Open access. You can see every assumption, every calculation. Audit the data. Nothing's hidden. Fork the Wolfram Language code and go DIY. Develop an awesome mod and it could get merged back into the main codebase.
Integrity and
Transparency
We're 100% committed to integrity and transparency. Reliable data sources, thoroughly documented operation, and a very firm "no" to anyone on any side who might want to advance a biased agenda.
Factual reports in plain, calm language. No sensationalism.
The numbers will speak!