PyPSA-GB: Great Britain Energy System Model#

Open-source energy system modelling for Great Britain's electricity network

PyPSA-GB is a comprehensive model of the Great Britain electricity system built on PyPSA (Python for Power System Analysis). It combines detailed network topology, real-world data sources, and future energy scenario projections to enable research into Britain’s energy transition.

🚀 Getting Started

New to PyPSA-GB? Install the model and run your first scenario with our step-by-step guide.

Getting Started
📖 User Guide

Deep dive into configuration. Learn how to customise scenarios, configure solvers, run market dispatch, and analyse optimisation results.

User Guide
📊 Data Reference

Understand the data. Comprehensive documentation of FES, DUKES, REPD, ETYS, and all input data sources.

Data Reference
🔬 Tutorials

Learn by example. Jupyter notebooks exploring historical, future, flexibility, and market-dispatch analysis.

Tutorials
🔧 API Reference

Technical documentation. Module and function reference for PyPSA-GB’s core and integration scripts.

API Reference
🛠️ Development

Contribute to PyPSA-GB. Architecture overview, contributing guidelines, and release notes.

Development

Key Features#

  • Multiple Network Models: Full ETYS (2000+ buses), Reduced (32 buses), or Zonal (17 zones)

  • Historical & Future Scenarios: Model years 2010-2024 (historical) or 2025-2050 (FES projections)

  • NESO Future Energy Scenarios: Holistic Transition, Electric Engagement, and other pathways

  • Demand-Side Flexibility: Heat pump pre-heating, EV smart charging & V2G, and event-based demand response

  • Two-Stage Market Dispatch: Copperplate wholesale scheduling, balancing redispatch, and historical ELEXON/NESO validation

  • High Resolution: Half-hourly or hourly timesteps with full network constraints

  • Open Source: MIT license, transparent assumptions, community contributions welcome

Quick Example#

Run a 2035 Holistic Transition scenario:

# Activate environment
conda activate pypsa-gb

# Run the workflow
snakemake resources/network/HT35_solved.nc -j 4

Contributors#

PyPSA-GB is developed at the Institute for Energy Systems, University of Edinburgh.

  • Lead Developer: Dr Andrew Lyden

  • Contributors: Dr Wei Sun, Dr Iain Struthers, Dr Seb Hudson, Dr Lukas Franken

This work was completed as part of the INTEGRATE project led by Prof Daniel Friedrich.

Citation#

If you use PyPSA-GB in your research, please cite:

Lyden, A., Sun, W., Struthers, I., Franken, L., Hudson, S., Wang, Y. and Friedrich, D., 2024. PyPSA-GB: An open-source model of Great Britain’s power system for simulating future energy scenarios. Energy Strategy Reviews, 53, p.101375.

Papers#

  • Dergunova, T. and Lyden, A., 2024. Great Britain’s hydrogen infrastructure development—Investment priorities and locational flexibility. Applied Energy, 375, p.124017.

  • Desguers, T., Lyden, A. and Friedrich, D., 2024. Integration of curtailed wind into flexible electrified heating networks with demand-side response and thermal storage: Practicalities and need for market mechanisms. Energy Conversion and Management, 304, p.118203.

  • Lyden, A., Alene, S., Connor, P., Renaldi, R. and Watson, S., 2024. Impact of locational pricing on the roll out of heat pumps in the UK. Energy Policy, 187, p.114043.

  • Lyden, A., Sun, W., Friedrich, D. and Harrison, G., 2023. Electricity system security of supply in Scotland. Study for the Scottish Government via ClimateXChange.

License#

PyPSA-GB is released under the MIT License. See data reference for details on data licenses.