Version Release History

The AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed

A Free Open-Source Computational Laboratory for the
Agent-Based Modeling of Electricity Systems

Last Updated: 20 September 2008 Site maintained by: Leigh Tesfatsion Professor of Economics and Mathematics Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011-1070 http://www.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/ tesfatsi AT iastate.edu AMES Market Package Homepage

AMES Market Package Versions Released to Date:

• Version 2.02 (Released 9/20/08)
• Version 2.01 (Released 7/17/08)
• Version 2.0 (Released 7/10/08)
• Version 1.31 (Released 10/13/07)
• Version 1.3 (Released 7/14/07)
• Version 1.2 (Released 7/6/07)
• Version 1.1 (Released 6/29/07)
• Version 1.0 (Released 6/22/07)

Note on Terminology: We use "AMES Wholesale Power Market Test Bed" to refer to our general test bed framework and "AMES Market Package" to refer to our particular Java software implementation of this framework.

AMES Market Package--Version 2.02 (Released: 9/20/08)

Version release 2.02 of the AMES Market Package modifies the previously released version 2.01 as follows:

• A small glitch in the GUI menu command sequence "Output Table View -> GenCo Commitments -> GenCo i" has been fixed so that the name of the selected GenCo is properly displayed in the first table column.

AMES Market Package--Version 2.01 (Released: 7/17/08)

Version release 2.01 of the AMES Market Package modifies the previously released version 2.0 as follows:

1. A glitch in the final "Done" command in the command sequence "Case->Case Parameters->Step 1...Step 6->Done" has been fixed so that changed parameter settings are properly saved and can be immediately run.
2. The default (or user-specified) random seed set by "Case->Case Parameters->Step 6: Simulation Control Parameters->Random Seed" is now properly displayed at the top of the main view screen when a case is run.
3. After each run, the main view screen now indicates (at the end) which of the five possible stopping rules have been flagged and which flagged stopping rule's activation actually resulted in the stopping of the simulation run.
4. A sample data file for conducting batch (multi-run) experiments has been included in the DATA directory for AMES(V2.01) along with sample data files for conducting single-run 5-bus and 30-bus test case experiments. The extension ".bth" is used for batch data files and the extension ".dat" is used for single-run data files.
5. A glitch in the display ordering of the GenCo learning parameters on the main view screen has been fixed.
6. The default values for the GenCos' fixed costs in the 5-bus and 30-bus test cases have now been calibrated so that each GenCo earns positive daily profits (daily total revenues minus daily total cost) in the "competitive benchmark" solution calculated at the beginning of each run. In the previous version 2.0 the default fixed cost values were set in an ad hoc manner that resulted in persisently negative daily profits for some GenCos.
7. The default settings V_o and S_o for base voltage and base apparent power now appear in the setting screen "Case->Case Parameters->Step 1: Input Global Parameters" so that the user can change these default base value settings as desired.
8. The default (or user-specified) settings for the price-sensitive demand function parameters c_j(H), d_j(H), and SLMax_j(H) for each hour H and each LSE j are now displayed on the main view screen (along with all other parameter settings) whenever a case is run.
9. The default (or user-specified) settings for the price-sensitive demand function parameters c_j(H), d_j(H), and SLMax_j(H) for each hour H and each LSE j can now be displayed in table form by the command sequence "View->Output Table View->View Case Data Parameters->LSE Price-Sensitive Demand Parameters".
10. The price-sensitive demand function for each LSE j can now be individually displayed in chart form as part of the display of cleared price-sensitive demand for LSE j by the command sequence "View->Output Chart View->LSE Price-Sensitive Demand"->LSEj.
11. For direct comparison, the true marginal cost function for each GenCo i is now displayed along with GenCo i's reported marginal cost function for each day D using the command sequence "View->Output Chart View->View Case Data Parameters->GenCos->GenCoi.
12. The setting screen "Case->Case Parameters->Step 5: Input LSE Parameters->LSEj" has been modified for clarity. In particular, the captions now indicate more clearly the difference between the flag boxes (for indicating the existence or not of fixed demand and/or of a price-sensitive demand function for LSE j for each hour) versus the value boxes (for setting specific numerical values for fixed demand and/or for the price-sensitive demand function parameters for LSE j for each hour).
13. A glitch in the chart displays of cleared points for LSE price-sensitive demands has been fixed.

Note: Thanks to Abhishek Somani, Nanpeng Yu, and Qun Zhou for helpful comments on the previous version release 2.0, particularly with regard to points (1) through (4).

AMES Market Package--Version 2.0 (Released: 7/10/08)

Version 2.0 of the AMES Market Package extends the capabilities of the previously released Version 1.31 as follows:

• The demand bid reported by each LSE for each hour of the day-ahead market can now include a price-sensitive demand bid function as well as a fixed (price-insensitive) demand bid. In the previous version 1.31 only fixed demand bids were permitted.
• All stochastic reinforcement learning parameter values can now be set individually for each GenCo. In the previous version 1.31 these parameter values had to be set the same across all GenCos.
• In the implementation of each GenCo's stochastic reinforcement learning method, the user can now choose to use either "daily profits" or "daily net earnings" as the "daily rewards" that condition the updating of action choice probabilities. The former is defined as revenues minus total costs (including fixed costs), whereas the latter is defined as revenues minus total variable costs (excluding fixed costs). In the previous version 1.31, the use of daily profits as the daily rewards was hard coded.
• The ISO can now impose a user-specified price cap on the supply offers reported by GenCos in an effort to mitigate their "market power," i.e., their ability to profitably raise prices either by reporting higher-than-true marginal costs or less-than-true operating capacity. In the previous version 1.31 no supply-offer price caps were permitted.
• Many additional tables and charts are now available for the display of simulation outputs, and the presentation of the tables and charts has been improved.
• The user is now able to set any combination of five different stopping rules for simulation runs. In the previous version 1.31 only two stopping rules were available.
• The user is now clearly informed on the main output screen (as well as in the output tables and charts) whenever offered supply is inadequate to meet fixed demand for some hour of the day-ahead market, resulting in the DC optimal power flow (OPF) problem for that hour having no solution. In the previous version 1.31, all DC-OPF outputs were simply zeroed out in the output tables and charts whenever such "inadequacy events" arose.

AMES Market Package--Version 1.31 (Released: 10/13/07)

Version 1.31 of the AMES Market Package modifies Version 1.3 by correcting a small bug in ActionDomain.java (a misplaced comment indicator) that causes program termination when the user specifies M2=1 (i.e., when the user forces all generators to report the true slope of their marginal cost curves in the supply offers they report to the ISO).

In particular, in ActionDomain.Java for Version 1.31, the comment indicator // in front of the assignment statement "inc2=someLargeNumber;" inside the "if(M2==1)" code segment is now removed.

AMES Market Package-Version 1.3 (Released: 7/14/07)

Version 1.3 of the AMES Market Package modifies Version 1.2 by incorporating a number of improvements in the output displays.

In addition, Version 1.3 corrects a bug in Version 1.2 that caused the competitive equilibrium (no learning) benchmark solution, initially calculated during each run of the market simulation, to be picked up and counted as "Day 1" in the indexing of days. Version 1.3 treats this initial calculation of the competitive equilibrium benchmark solution as a separate off-line calculation, so that "Day 1" now clearly indicates the beginning of the market simulation with learning traders.

AMES Market Package--Version 1.2 (Released: 7/6/07)

Version 1.2 of the AMES Market Package Bed modified Version 1.1 in response to user questions about set up. The accompanying manual and tutorial materials were revised for increased clarity, and a link was included on the AMES Test Bed Home Page to a new page of detailed instructions for setting up and running the AMES Market Package as a NetBeans project.

AMES Market Package--Version 1.1 (Released: 6/29/07)

Version 1.1 of the AMES Market Package modified Version 1.0 by cleaning up some of the comment statements in the .java files, and by changing the name of JOptim.jar to QuadProgJ.jar in the library directory to clarify that this Jar file implements the SCQP solver QuadProgJ constituting the core of DCOPFJ, the AMES DC optimal power flow solver.

AMES Market Package--Version 1.0 (Released: 6/22/07)

Version 1.0 of the AMES Market Package was the first release of our framework as open-source software