Glossary¶
Plain-language definitions for terms used throughout these docs.
- CEF (Canada's Energy Future)
- The source of the low-resolution alternative demand projections stored alongside each sector's high-resolution module output in the master database. See Model Architecture.
- Commodity
- In TEMOA's network model, anything that flows between technologies — a fuel, a form of energy (like electricity), or a demand. Technologies consume and produce commodities.
- Cost-optimal
- The solution TEMOA searches for: the lowest total-cost way of building and operating the modeled energy system while satisfying demand and any constraints in place.
- Filtering interface
- The tool that narrows the master database down to a specific case of interest — a region, a scenario, and which resolution track (high-res or low-res) to use per sector. See Model Architecture.
- High resolution / Low resolution
- The two parallel versions of each sector's demand data stored in the master database: high resolution is the sector modules' own bottom-up output; low resolution is the coarser, top-down CEF-based alternative. See Model Architecture.
- Linker module
- A module — Fuel or Electricity in CANOE — that doesn't represent its own end-use demand, but instead ties the sector demand models to energy prices, imports, and distribution. See Model Architecture.
- Master database
- The single SQLite database, following the TEMOA/CANOE schema, that all sector and linker modules write into — containing both high- and low-resolution tracks, before any filtering or temporal reduction. See Model Architecture.
- Network
- TEMOA's representation of an energy system: technologies and commodities connected together, evolving across time periods.
- Region
- The geographic unit CANOE models.
- Representative periods
- The step that reduces a dataset's fine-grained temporal resolution down to a manageable set of representative time periods that TEMOA can practically optimize over. See Model Architecture.
- Scenario
- A distinct set of assumptions (e.g., a policy variant or regional variant) that CANOE's master database can represent alongside others. !!! note "Needs confirmation" This definition is inferred, not confirmed against team usage — flag if "scenario" means something more specific in practice (e.g., strictly policy variants vs. any assumption change).
- Schema (schema version)
- The specific table names, column names, and data types that a TEMOA-based database must follow. CANOE's release tags track which schema version they're compatible with. See CANOE vs. TEMOA.
- Sector
- One of CANOE's six demand-modeling areas: Electricity, Transportation, Industry, Residential, Commercial, and Fuels.
- TEMOA
- Tools for Energy Model Optimization and Analysis — the open-source, Canada-agnostic optimization framework CANOE is built on. See CANOE vs. TEMOA.
- Technology
- In TEMOA's network model, anything that converts one commodity into another — a power plant, a vehicle, a heating system — with associated costs, capacity, and lifetime.