Accesos provisionales y definitivos.

Funded by the Danish Energy Agency (Boldt, 2013), the original BALMOREL project was completed in 2001 and headed by freelance consultant Dr. Techn. Hans Ravn. Making the model began some time before, as BALMOREL is a further development of two studies documenting the possibilities for establishing the trade of electricity and gas among the countries around the Baltic Sea. In this way, the making of BALMOREL started as part of a series of initiatives in part sparked by the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s (Ravn, 2013). Before the liberalization of electricity and introduction of BALMOREL, one of the main modelling programs used in the Danish electricity sector was the Norwegian software named Samkøringsmodellen. As pointed out in the description of making the decision to build the TSI connecting DK1 and DK2, Samkøringsmodellen was developed in Norway with a focus on accurately representing the large proportion of hydropower generation in the Norwegian electricity system. That Samkøringsmodellen was developed with this emphasis highlights how the configuration and functioning of such programs tend to reflect the context of use they have been made for, as characterized by the traditions and priorities involved in solving different tasks (e.g. S. L. Pedersen, 2012). A central purpose of the BALMOREL project was to construct a program for electricity market representation in reaction to the liberalization of electricity in Denmark and many other European countries (e.g. Ravn, 2001b). But an equally important aspect of BALMOREL was that it was built with an international focus through unbiased modelling of technology mixes and established energy system configurations. Finally, BALMOREL was intended to function as a shared modelling platform for discussing the exchange of electricity among the countries in close proximity to the Baltic Sea (S. H. Jacobsen, 2003).

After having explored and discarded the option of adapting existing software, BALMOREL was developed in a collaboration between Elkraft System, Risø National Laboratory, Danish Institute of Local Government Studies, the Estonian Stockholm Environment Institute, the Latvian Institute of Physical Energetics, the Lithuanian Energy Institute, the Polish PSE International, and the Russian Kaliningrad State University. In accordance with the ambition to establish a common modelling platform for electricity market representation, BALMOREL was developed as an open-source program coded using the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS). GAMS is a widely used modelling system originally

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developed in the Washington, DC-based R&D center of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Bussieck & Meeraus, 2004). As BALMOREL is open source and based on the generic equation solvers in GAMS, the program is relatively pliable in character. In other words, it is possible to add to the code and represent other aspects of the energy system, such as parts of the transportation sector (e.g. Bregnbæk, 2012b).

To see how this collaborative project implied mobilizing expertise from control systems engineering, emphasis here shifts to the use of linear programming in the making of BALMOREL. Developed specifically for production system optimization and control, linear programming is part of the tradition of ‘bottom- up’ design and modelling found within the technical sciences (e.g. Capasso, Grattieri, Lamedica, & Prudenzi, 1994). When doing bottom-up modelling or design “…you start from the components, develop circuits, and then assemble a product. In top-down design, a high-level picture of the requirements is first formulated; then the functions and hardware required to implement the system are determined” [Italics in original] (Nise, 2004, p. 9). As they are central concepts in recent approaches to production system optimization, linear programming and bottom-up modelling share a history with the central planning regime for energy system operation and development in Denmark.28 _{Given its configuration as a}

bottom-up model, based on a higher order control arrangement for production system optimization, BALMOREL thus “…has its root in the optimisation of the operation of the electricity system, as performed in the electricity companies. Models within this tradition emphasise the description of the generation units, the electricity network and other technical elements of relevance for…economic operation…” (Ravn, 2001b, p. 9).

Seeing how BALMOREL represents the electricity market by optimizing and controlling the production system for generation and transportation of electricity in accordance with changes in demand is significant to understanding how control systems engineering in the form of linear programming constitutes a generative form of expertise in the making of this market device. Again, a key characteristic

28 _{See chapter 1 for a description of the use of linear programming for the marginal cost‐based} 

merit  order‐optimized  dispatch  of  power  plants  when  operating  the  electricity  system  by  means of central planning and after the liberalization of the electricity sector.  

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of BALMOREL which comes from its roots in control systems engineering for production system optimization is that the model represents the electricity market by conceiving of the generation and transportation of electricity as if they were centrally planned, so as to meet a variable or elastic demand and establish a price.29 _{In order to see how this works, focus here shifts to the way linear}

programming functions as a method of production system optimization. That is, it is shown how linear programming constitutes a particular type of control system arrangement.

Linear programming for production system control