Documentation
An important aspect of ANSWER-MARKAL’s user-friendliness is the provision of comprehensive documentation of the facilities of the ANSWER-MARKAL software. The primary documentation is provided in two User Manuals, with additional documentation of special features provided in a number of small pdf files.
Also be aware that documentation of the MARKAL model itself can be downloaded from the ETSAP website – see the section “ETSAP MARKAL Documentation” below.
ANSWER-MARKAL User Manuals
For ANSWER-MARKAL, the primary documentation is provided in the following two User Manuals:
- ANSWERv6-MARKAL User Manual.pdf – This manual of 359 pages provides a detailed guide to the use of the ANSWER-MARKAL software for working with standard MARKAL.
- ANSWERv6-MARKAL Load Templates Manual.pdf – This manual of 40 pages provides a detailed guide to the use of an advanced ANSWER-MARKAL facility: “smart” Excel load templates that allow the analyst to assemble the model data from its sources in a form readily loaded into ANSWER via the “Import Model Data from Excel” facility.
Use the links above to download these pdfs.
If you have ANSWER-MARKAL installed on your PC in the default home folder C:\AnswerV6, these User Manuals are located in subfolder C:\AnswerV6\UserManuals and may be accessed when running ANSWER-MARKAL via the “Help” menu:
Additional ANSWER-MARKAL Documentation
A number of small pdf files provide additional ANSWER-MARKAL documentation that is not contained in the ANSWERv6-MARKAL User Manual.pdf. The first of these pdf files documents enhancements made to the Batch Run facility; the remaining pdf files document the use of ANSWER-MARKAL to work with some advanced MARKAL model variants:
- ANSWERv6-MARKAL Batch Run Enhancements.pdf
- Elastic Demand MARKAL under ANSWER.pdf
- Endogenous Technology Learning (ETL) under ANSWER-MARKAL.pdf
- Modeling Lumpy Investments in ANSWER-MARKAL.pdf
- Modeling Lumpy Retirements in ANSWER-MARKAL.pdf
Use the links above to download these pdfs.
If you have the latest version of ANSWER-MARKAL installed on your PC in the default home folder C:\AnswerV6, these pdf files are located in subfolder C:\AnswerV6\Doc and may be accessed using Windows Explorer. If you have an older version of ANSWER-MARKAL, subfolder C:\AnswerV6\Doc contains the same information in Word docs whose filename matches the pdf filename (except that the Elastic Demand and Endogenous Technology Learning Word docs are named MED_ANS.doc and ETL_ANS.doc respectively).
ETSAP MARKAL Documentation
The MARKAL model was created by the International Energy Agency’s ETSAP group. If you go to the ETSAP website (www.iea-etsap.org) and click on the Documentation tab, you will see the following list of documentation of the MARKAL model that is available for download (screenshot as at 15 March 2013):
In particular use the link: “Part 1: Standard MARKAL” to download the main MARKAL reference manual “Documentation for the MARKAL Family of Models”, authors Richard Loulou, Gary Goldstein, Ken Noble, 389 pages.