This is a toy genetic algorithm optimiser for the DECC 2050 Pathways Calculator. It allows multi-criteria non-linear optimisation of possible pathways for the UK's energy system.

Further detail on the overall project: http://www.decc.gov.uk/2050

Canonical source for this optimizer: http://github.com/decc/decc_2050_optimizer

Right now this is a naive implementation that we are messing around with. It has not been used in anger.

Requires:

• ruby 1.9.3 (www.ruby-lang.org)
• a standard C compiler and libraries
• the R statistical package (only if you want to plot the visualisations)
• the zeromq libary (only if you want to run in parallel processing mode)

Requires the bundler gem:

sudo gem install bundler

To install dependencies:

cd decc_2050_optimizer
bundler

To run an example optimisation

cd decc_2050_optimizer
ruby examples/optimise_ghg.rb

To write your optimisation, take a look at:

examples/optimise_cost_no_nuclear.rb

The code has support for parallel processing. To use it, you must first run a few worker processes:

bundle exec lib/parallel_processing_worker.rb

Then you should set the optimiser to use the workers. This means adding:

optimiser.setup_parallel_processing

before calling

optimiser.run!

For an example, take a look at examples/optimise_cost_no_nuclear_parallel.rb or run it by:

bundle exec examples/optimise_cost_no_nuclear_parallel.rb

Grateful for bugs and patches: http://github.com/decc/decc_2050_optimizer

[email protected]

Department of Energy and Climate Change 3 Whitehall Place London SW1A 1AA

Where not otherwise covered by separate copyright, this source code is Crown Copyright (c) 2012

Where not otherwise covered by a separate licence, this source code is distributed under the MIT licence: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

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