Documentation

An important aspect of ANSWER-TIMES’s user-friendliness is the provision of comprehensive documentation of the facilities of the ANSWER-TIMES software. The primary documentation is provided in three User Manuals, with additional documentation of special features provided in a number of small pdf files.

Also be aware that documentation of the TIMES model itself can be downloaded from the ETSAP website – see the section “ETSAP TIMES Documentation” below.

ANSWER-TIMES User Manuals

For ANSWER-TIMES, the primary documentation is provided in the following three User Manuals:

  • ANSWERv6-TIMES User Manual.pdf – This manual of 342 pages provides a detailed guide to the use of the ANSWER-TIMES software for working with standard TIMES.
  • ANSWERv6-TIMES Smart Excel Workbook Manual.pdf – This manual of 39 pages provides a detailed guide to the use of an advanced ANSWER-TIMES facility: “smart” Excel workbooks that allow the analyst to assemble the model data from its sources in a form readily loaded into ANSWER-TIMES via the “Import Model Data from Excel” facility. It documents this facility as it applies to a user who is running Excel 2003 on their PC.
  • ANSWERv6-TIMES Smart Excel Workbook Manual (Excel 2007 and higher).pdf – This manual of 40 pages updates the Excel 2003 version of the Smart Excel Workbook Manual to detail the use of the Excel 2007 (and higher) version of this advanced ANSWER-TIMES facility. Its textual content is very similar to that of the Excel 2003 version, but with all screen snapshots updated to correspond to what the Excel 2007 (and higher) user will see.

Use the links above to download these pdfs.

If you have the latest version of ANSWER-TIMES installed on your PC in the default home folder C:\AnswerTIMESv6, these User Manuals are located in subfolder C:\AnswerTIMESv6\UserManuals and may be accessed when running ANSWER-TIMES via the “Help” menu:

ANSWER-TIMES Help Menu

Additional ANSWER-TIMES Documentation

A number of small pdf files provide additional ANSWER-TIMES documentation that is not contained in the ANSWERv6-TIMES User Manual.pdf. The first of these pdf files documents enhancements made to ANSWER-TIMES to handle the TIMES feature Simplified Dynamic Growth or Decay Constraints; the remaining pdf files document the use of ANSWER-TIMES to work with some advanced TIMES model variants:

Use the links above to download these pdfs.

If you have the latest version of ANSWER-TIMES installed on your PC in the default home folder C:\AnswerTIMESv6, these pdf files are located in subfolder C:\AnswerTIMESv6\Doc and may be accessed using Windows Explorer. If you have an older version of ANSWER-TIMES, subfolder C:\AnswerTIMESv6\Doc contains the same information in Word docs whose filename matches the pdf filename.

ETSAP TIMES Documentation

The TIMES 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 TIMES model that is available for download (screenshot as at 15 March 2013):

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In particular use the link: “Part I: Introduction” to download a manual that provides a general description of the TIMES paradigm: “Documentation for the TIMES Model, PART I”, authors Richard Loulou, Uwe Remme, Antti Lehtila, Gary Goldstein, 78 pages.

And use the link: “Part II: Sets and Parameters” to download a comprehensive reference manual for the TIMES model: “Documentation for the TIMES Model, PART II”, authors Richard Loulou, Uwe Remme, Antti Lehtila, Gary Goldstein, 349 pages.