Glossary of Terms

Attention

This is a quick hack-page to start to see (and be able to search) for synonyms we might have in usage of recurring terms. Need to consider how to transform and apply rst substitutions directives, which we’d probably want to enforce on a project-wide basis via a general “substitutions” file that is imported on all documents. An aspiration for development over time.

component

components

Component

A component, or sometimes emphasized as “component class” in this documentation, is a grouping of devices with similar characteristics, i.e. attribute schema, and behavior within the network. All available (default) components are listed in the component.csv file in the main package folder. Each component’s attribute structure is defined by the a csv file, corresponding to the component list_name located in the component_attrs sub-directory.

The formal identifying label for the component class itself is the CapWords formatted string in the first column of the components.csv file. However, components are not formal Python classes. See The Network is the overall container for further context and details.

devices

device

A device is a reference to a specific, uniquely named data element within a component class. So, for instance, a specific generating unit, might be be assigned the name “Blue Ridge Wind Farm II”, a device that would exist within the “Generator” component class. See The Network is the overall container for further context and details.

network

Network

pypsa.Network

The fundamental overall container for all PyPSA data and key methods, defined as a formal Python class object. Details on the Network are provided in The Network is the overall container and further supporting documentation, e.g. the API reference.

The capitalization of references to network (or Network) are not overly critical in this documentation. However, we tend to use the capitalized variant “Network” when referring to aspects of the class definition itself and use the lower_case variable network when referring to an instantiation of a specific data object, e.g. with examples related to retrieving data.

list_name

A reference that defines the string accessor / variable that provides data for all devices within a component class. It is identifiable as such by being formatted in snake_case.

snapshots

snapshot

Another good one to have a definition for and use when referenced