Fusion plant feature

[cfe316]

Description of the fusion module

FUSION is, more or less, a few extra operational constraints plus an expression for parasitic (recirculating) power.

• Fusion plants are set of extra variables, expressions, and constraints that "bolt on" to a THERM=1 plant.

  • This is similar to how the Maintenance module is a "bolt-on" to a THERM=1 plant.
  • Fusion and Maintenance are fully cross-compatible.

• This PR does not include multi-hour thermal storage (as my Joule paper had), but it does keep that future application in mind. I think the best picture is that it does include sub-hourly thermal storage (perhaps 10 or 20 minutes worth) for the time between pulses.

• A fusion plant has three types of parasitic power, expressed in four parameters

  • Passive parasitic power is on at a constant rate all the time (but can be specified as being lower during maintenance.) This models vacuum pumps, cryoplant, tritium handling systems etc which are always on.
  • Active parasitic power is on when a 'pulse' is on. This models RF or NBI heating.
  • Start energy is extra energy required during the hour a pulse starts. This models fast solenoid swings or extra heating power.
  • Start power models a very large, but brief peak power level (e.g. 300 MW for a minute) during startup. This affects the CapacityReserveMargin policy, but not overall power balance.

• Two new variables vPulseStart and vPulseUnderway keep track of pulses. These are roughly analogous to vSTART and vCOMMIT.

  • One can set a "dwell time" that occurs at the start of a pulse, to model the 10-15 minutes time between pulses. During this time the fusion core can't generate heat.
  • It's possible to specify a maximum pulse length, e.g. 2 hours for something like EU-DEMO. This makes the reactor need to vPulseStart every other hour.
  • It's also possible to model a maximum number of pulses per annum, if you want to do that.

• The fusion variables interact with the standard THERM variables through vP and vCOMMIT:

  • The core can't pulse unless the plant is vCOMMIT'd.
  • vP <= vPulseUnderway - dwell_time * vPulseStart

• Standard constraints on vP apply

  • Min_power
  • Max_power (pP_Max)
  • Ramp up / Ramp_down
  • Minimum Up_time / down_time

• There are no additional constraints for something like the ramp rate of the core: fusion physics is much faster than 1h.

• The net power of a fusion plant is vP[t] - eFusionParasiticTotal[t].

The interface

• No new input files.
• 7 + 1 new columns in Generators_data.csv
  1. Parasitic_Passive
  2. Parasitic_Active
  3. Parasitic_Start_Energy
  4. Dwell_Time
  5. Max_Up_Time
  6. Max_Starts
  7. Parasitic_Start_Power
  8. Parasitic_Passive_Maintenance_Remaining (only required if the plant also has Maintenance turned on).

Two new output files:

• fusion_parasitic_power.csv
• fusion_pulse_starts.csv

New column in power_balance.csv "Fusion parasitic power"

Summary / implementation progress

• Functions to apply Fusion to resources (or components of resources, e.g. the thermal core for future thermal+storage devices).

• Interoperable with Maintenance formulation

• Adjustments to zonal power balance for parasitic (recirculating) power

• Add adjustments to capacity reserve margin

• Add adjustments to Reserves (?) - might need help with this

• Add adjustments to ESR policy.

• Hook up to specialized output files

  • capacityfactor.csv
  • CapacityValue.csv
  • ChargingCost.csv ?
  • ESR_Revenue
  • power_balance.csv : add parasitic power to Charging column?
  • ReserveMarginRevenue : incorporate parasitic power

• Documentation

[cfe316]

Closing in favor of #743, which incorporates the latest changes.

[cfe316]

Closing in favor of #743