oemof.solph — The Complete Guide: Optimisation Models for Electricity and Heat Systems
oemof.solph is part of the open oemof energy modelling framework. You define buses, flows, converters and storage in Python, and solph builds a linear or mixed-integer optimisation problem from them and solves it. This is how you plan and operate electricity and heat systems.
oemof.solph
oemof developer group
A model generator for energy system optimisation (LP/MILP) — combined heat and power, storage, heat pumps and renewables.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Component model — buses, flows, converters and storage as building blocks.
- LP and MILP — including discrete decisions such as switching units on and off.
- Electricity and heat together — combined heat and power, heat pumps and storage tanks.
- Renewable integration — hourly generation profiles against demand.
- Flexible scale — from a single building up to a regional system.
What to know
There is no graphical interface — everything is code. solph does not include a solver; you install one separately, and the free CBC is recommended for most users. The MIT licence allows commercial work too. It suits energy engineers and researchers who want a transparent model they can change.
Related tools
For models focused on the power grid — PyPSA. For the modelling language solph builds on — Pyomo. For energy analysis at district and city scale — City Energy Analyst.
PyPSA
PyPSA community (TU Berlin)
Optimisation of power and energy systems — economic dispatch, capacity expansion, storage and sector coupling.
Get it from the vendor
Pyomo
Sandia National Laboratories and Pyomo contributors
An optimisation modelling language in Python — linear, nonlinear and mixed-integer problems for processes, energy and scheduling.
Get it from the vendor
City Energy Analyst
ETH Zurich (Architecture and Building Systems)
Urban energy modelling — hourly energy demand for many buildings, solar potential and district heating and cooling network design.
Get it from the vendor
SAM — System Advisor Model
NREL
Technical and financial modelling of renewable energy systems — annual yield and payback.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
oemof.solph gives you a structured way to build an energy system optimisation model without writing the equations by hand — free and fully open.