SIREN Files

The SIREN Toolkit
=================

(C) Copyright 2015-2025 Sustainable Energy Now Inc.

This is Version 5.0 of SEN's Interactive Renewable Energy Network
Toolkit, SIREN. These are applications packaged for Windows. If you
have access to Python (3.12 +) and it's libraries you can you the source
code provided to execute in other environments.

There are four files available. Choose those that suit your purposes.
If you want SIREN without the SWIS data choose '2. siren_application.msi'
If you want to make SAM weather files using makeweatherfiles choose
'4. makeweatherfile.msi' as this includes getera5 and getmerra2 which
simplify downloading ERA5 and MERRA-2 files respectively.

1. siren_toolkit.msi (~860Mb) is the full toolkit in Microsoft Software
   Installer format. Programs (~413Mb) are installed in Program Files and
   the sample data (~220Mb) is installed in ProgramData

2. siren_application.msi (~413Mb) contains just the SIREN application
   with no data files. If you want to try it straight away with your own
   data files this is the one for you

3. siren_sample.exe (~220Mb) contains the files and data for the sample
   SIREN simulation of the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) in
   Western Australia. This has sample data for 2022, 2023 and 2024.
   - The weather files for 2022 to 2023 are derived from MERRA-2 data
     (~70Mb).
   - The weather files for 2023 are derived from ERA5 data (~112 Mb)
   The data is a subset of what has been previously been provided and the
   files are now compressed to save space

4. makeweatherfiles.msi (~240Mb) is a standalone package in Windows
   MSI format that can be used to create SAM weather files from satellite
   data. It contains:
   - makeweatherfiles. A program to produce SAM weather files
   - getera5. Enables ERA5 files to be downloaded more easily
   - getmerra2. Enables MERRA-2 files to be downloaded more easily

Three files are in Microsoft Software Installer(MSI) format. You may need
to run as Administrator for them to install correctly. If you install in
a read-only environment you can use the 'SIREN Setup' (sirensetup)
shortcut to enable the files produced by SIREN to be saved (elsewhere)
in writeable storage.

SIREN Toolkit - siren_toolkit.msi
---------------------------------

To use the toolkit execute siren_toolkit.exe to copy the contents to
your hard drive It requires around 575Mb of space. The copied files
have three top-level folders:

- 'getting_started' has details on the SIREN Toolkit and this README
  file (5Mb)

- 'siren' has the SIREN application. To use the application execute
  siren.exe from this folder. To get started press F1 (menu option Help
  -> Help) to view the SIREN Help file (help.html in the siren folder;
  this can also be opened in your web browser). You can create a shortcut
  to point to this program (413Mb)

- 'siren_sample' contains the data provided for the SWIS for 2022 to
  2024 (~220Mb)

SIREN Toolkit is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License. The
program is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.


Changes for 2025-05-12
----------------------

There have been minor changes to a number of programs to correct some
errors and "trap" more errors. Some other changes:

- Flexiplot and Powerplot. Improved support for pie charts and 3d Surface
  Charts plus other minor enhancements

- Powermatch.
  - Allow fontsize to be set for main menu as Windows font may be too
    small
  - Adjustments to approaches for catering for committed generation
    (min_capacity) and TML figures for RE to not use negative
    generation and optionally account for storage charging
  - Prototype transition modelling, recharge and discharge times,
    jobs modelling

- sirensetup. Setup model file location in Windows read-only
  environment

Changes for 2025-02-21
----------------------

There have been minor changes to a number of programs to correct some
errors and "trap" more errors. Some other changes:

- Powermap. Support compressed weather files

- Powermatch. Prototype version of transition modelling to model
  increasing RE generation over time

- Powerplot. Allow colour palettes and 3D surface charts

- getera5. Cater for new cdsapi


For changes prior to this data refer to CHANGELOG_3 (most recent),
CHANGELOG_2, and CHANGELOG.

Other Files
-----------

Execute the other files to extract the contents and then either update
the existing siren.ini file or create a new one to point to the file
locations

Acknowledgements
----------------

- SIREN uses System Advisor Model (SAM) modules for energy calculations.
  SAM is provided by NREL for the US DOE

- SIREN may use weather data obtained from either ERA5, a ECMWF
  atmospheric data set or MERRA-2 data, a NASA atmospheric data set

- SIREN may use a map derived from OpenStreetMap (MapQuest) Open Aerial
  Tiles

- SIREN may have data files obtained from the Electricity Market Operator
  for Western Australia

Feedback
--------

If you encounter problems or to provide feedback contact us at
siren@sen.asn.au

Licence
-------

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
Affero General Public License for more details.


Sustainable Energy Now (SEN)
May 2025