GCAM v5.4 Documentation: The GCAM Land Model

Documentation for GCAM
The Global Change Analysis Model

View the Project on GitHub JGCRI/gcam-doc


The GCAM Land Model

This page provides more detailed explanations of the descriptions provided in the inputs to supply and inputs to demand modeling pages.

Mapping the IEA Energy Balances

The IEA Energy Balances (IEA 2019) are a comprehensive set of country-level statistics of energy production, transformation, and use that is the primary source of most calibration information in GCAM. However, the data product itself is somewhat complex, and the mappings from the IEA’s categories to GCAM’s sectors and fuels are not obvious. This section is intended to provide an overview description of the data processing with some detailed tables. It does not define the categories within the IEA data; interested readers are instead referred to the documentation (IEA 2011).

Processing the IEA Data

First, the three composite regions in the IEA Energy Balances (Other Africa, Other Asia, Other Non-OECD Americas) are downscaled to the country level on the basis of population, according to the IEA’s reported country-to-region mapping. This is necessary for the construction of several GCAM regions. Several minor modifications to the dataset are made where thermodynamically impossible conversions were found (e.g., non-zero electricity generation with zero input fuel) that would otherwise result in errors in GCAM. Once the cleaned and country-level dataset is produced, the mappings from the IEA’s categories to GCAM’s categories are used to aggregate the entire dataset by GCAM regions and sectors. The detailed mappings are shown in Table 3 and Table 4, and described further below.

Resolving primary energy balances

In the IEA Energy Balances, the following identity holds for any country and primary fuel:

\[{Production} + {Imports} - {Exports} + {NetStockChanges} + {NetStatisticalDifferences} = {Consumption}\]

In GCAM, stock changes and statistical differences are not represented, so globally, the sum of consumption must equal the sum of production, and within any region the sum of production and net trade must be equal to consumption. This is resolved by using the consumption data as reported, and scaling the production data so that the global totals are equal. Net trade in each region is then the difference between the reported consumption and the derived, scaled production.

Resolving secondary energy balances

Similar identities can be constructed for each secondary fuel, wherein the production in the equation above would be replaced by the output of the relevant energy transformation sector(s). Because net stock changes and statistical differences are not modeled for any fuel in GCAM, the data can not be used exactly as reported, and the strategies for addressing these “flows” differ by fuel.

For electricity, the fuel inputs to power plants, electricity generation by power plants, own use of electricity, and distribution losses of electricity are used exactly as reported in each region. The consumption by end use sectors (buildings, industry, and transportation) are scaled to match the generation minus own use and losses. As such, any statistical differences are effectively distributed to the end use sectors.

A similar approach is taken for district heat, in the regions where it is considered as a fuel. In most regions, district heat used by end-use sectors is simply represented by adding the reported fuel inputs to district heating systems to the final energy consumption quantities of the end use sectors. However in regions with significant usage of district services, documented in district heat, the estimates of fuel inputs to the district heat plants are used as reported. Heat outputs are derived using exogenous input-output coefficients, and apportioned to end-use sectors according to relative shares of reported heat consumption.

For refined liquid fuels, the end-use consumption estimates by buildings, industry, and transportation are used as reported. Gross energy consumption quantities at petroleum refineries are also used exactly as reported, so any statistical differences or stock changes in the secondary fuels are effectively assigned to the input-output coefficients of the refineries in the historical years.

The remaining fuels used by end-use consumers (coal, natural gas, and biomass) are primary fuels, whose statistical differences are assigned to the production and trade quantities as described above.

Resolving final energy consumption

This section documents the processing of data from the IEA Energy Balances to GCAM’s “aggregate” final energy consumers: residential, commercial, industrial energy use, industrial feedstocks, and the following transportation modes: air, rail, road, and domestic and international ship. Further processing of the data to the more detailed end-use sectors, services, and technologies in GCAM is documented in buildings, industry, and transportation.

Detailed mappings of products and flows

The tables below show the mappings from the IEA’s “flows” to GCAM’s sectors, and from the IEA’s “products” to GCAM’s fuels. Exceptions to simple one-to-one mappings are noted below the tables.

Table 3: Mapping from IEA flows to GCAM sectors (and subsectors where appropriate)

flow_code flow_name sector
INDPROD Production resources
IMPORTS Imports  
EXPORTS Exports  
MARBUNK International Marine Bunkers transportation/international shipping
AVBUNK International Aviation Bunkers transportation/air
STOCKCHA Stock Changes  
TPES Total Primary Energy Supply  
TRANSFER Transfers  
STATDIFF Statistical Differences  
TOTTRANF Transformation Sector  
MAINELEC Main Activity Producer Electricity Plants electricity
AUTOELEC Autoproducer Electricity Plants electricity
MAINCHP Main Activity Producer CHP Plants electricity
AUTOCHP Autoproducer CHP Plants industrial energy use
MAINHEAT Main Activity Producer Heat Plants district heat
AUTOHEAT Autoproducer Heat Plants district heat
THEAT Heat Pumps industrial energy use
TBOILER Electric Boilers industrial energy use
TELE Chemical heat for electricity production  
TBLASTFUR Blast Furnaces industrial energy use
TGASWKS Gas Works gas processing/coal gasification; industrial energy use
TCOKEOVS Coke Ovens industrial energy use
TPATFUEL Patent Fuel Plants industrial energy use
TBKB BKB Plants industrial energy use
TREFINER Petroleum Refineries refining/oil refining
TPETCHEM Petrochemical Industry industrial energy use
TCOALLIQ Coal Liquefaction Plants refining/coal to liquids
TGTL Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) Plants refining/gas to liquids
TBLENDGAS For Blended Natural Gas gas processing/coal gasification; industrial energy use
TCHARCOAL Charcoal Production Plants industrial energy use
TNONSPEC Non-specified (Transformation) industrial energy use
TOTENGY Energy Sector  
EMINES Coal Mines industrial energy use
EOILGASE0 Oil and Gas Extraction industrial energy use
EBLASTFUR Blast Furnaces industrial energy use
EGASWKS Gas Works gas processing/coal gasification; industrial energy use
EBIOGAS Gasification Plants for Biogas industrial energy use
ECOKEOVS Coke Ovens industrial energy use
EPATFUEL Patent Fuel Plants industrial energy use
EBKB BKB Plants industrial energy use
EREFINER Petroleum Refineries refining/oil refining
ECOALLIQ Coal Liquefaction Plants refining/coal to liquids
ELNG Liquefaction (LNG) / Regasification Plants industrial energy use
EGTL Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) Plants refining/gas to liquids
EPOWERPLT Own Use in Electricity, CHP and Heat Plants electricity net ownuse; industrial energy use
EPUMPST Used for Pumped Storage electricity net ownuse; industrial energy use
ENUC Nuclear Industry industrial energy use
ECHARCOAL Charcoal Production Plants industrial energy use
ENONSPEC Non-specified (Energy) industrial energy use
DISTLOSS Distribution Losses electricity t&d; gas pipeline; industrial energy use
TFC Total Final Consumption  
TOTIND Industry Sector industrial energy use
IRONSTL Iron and Steel  
CHEMICAL Chemical and Petrochemical  
NONFERR Non-Ferrous Metals  
NONMET Non-Metallic Minerals  
TRANSEQ Transport Equipment  
MACHINE Machinery  
MINING Mining and Quarrying  
FOODPRO Food and Tobacco  
PAPERPRO Paper, Pulp and Print  
WOODPRO Wood and Wood Products  
CONSTRUC Construction  
TEXTILES Textile and Leather  
INONSPEC Non-specified (Industry)  
TOTTRANS Transport Sector  
WORLDAV World Aviation Bunkers  
DOMESAIR Domestic Aviation transportation/air
ROAD Road transportation/road
RAIL Rail transportation/rail
PIPELINE Pipeline Transport gas pipeline; industrial energy use
WORLDMAR World Marine Bunkers  
DOMESNAV Domestic Navigation transportation/domestic ship
TRNONSPE Non-specified (Transport) transportation
TOTOTHER Other Sectors  
RESIDENT Residential residential
COMMPUB Commercial and Public Services commercial
AGRICULT Agriculture/Forestry industrial energy use
FISHING Fishing industrial energy use
ONONSPEC Non-specified (Other) commercial
NONENUSE Non-Energy Use industrial feedstocks
NEINTREN Non-Energy Use Industry/Transformation/Energy  
NECHEM Memo: Feedstock Use in Petchemical Industry  
NETRANS Non-Energy Use in Transport  
NEOTHER Non-Energy Use in Other Sectors  
ELOUTPUT Elect.Output in GWh  
ELMAINE Elec Output-main activity producer ele plants electricity
ELAUTOE Elec Output-autoproducer electricity plants electricity
ELMAINC Elec Output-main activity producer CHP plants electricity
ELAUTOC Elec Output-autoproducer CHP plants industrial energy use, electricity
HEATOUT Heat Output in ktoe  
HEMAINC Heat Output-main activity producer CHP plants electricity; district heat
HEAUTOC Heat Output-autoproducer CHP plants  
HEMAINH Heat Output-main activity producer heat plant  
HEAUTOH Heat Output-autoproducer heat plants  

Table 4: Mapping from the IEA fuels to GCAM fuels

product fuel
Hard coal (if no detail) coal
Brown coal (if no detail) coal
Anthracite coal
Coking coal coal
Other bituminous coal coal
Sub-bituminous coal coal
Lignite coal
Patent fuel coal
Coke oven coke coal
Gas coke coal
Coal tar coal
BKB/peat briquettes coal
Gas works gas gas
Coke oven gas coal
Blast furnace gas coal
Other recovered gases coal
Peat coal
Natural gas gas
Natural Gas gas
Crude/NGL/feedstocks (if no detail) refined liquids
Crude oil refined liquids
Natural gas liquids refined liquids
Refinery feedstocks refined liquids
Additives/blending components refined liquids
Other hydrocarbons refined liquids
Refinery gas refined liquids
Ethane refined liquids
Liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) refined liquids
Motor gasoline refined liquids
Aviation gasoline refined liquids
Gasoline type jet fuel refined liquids
Kerosene type jet fuel refined liquids
Other kerosene refined liquids
Other Kerosene refined liquids
Gas/diesel oil refined liquids
Fuel oil refined liquids
Naphtha refined liquids
White spirit & SBP refined liquids
Lubricants refined liquids
Bitumen refined liquids
Paraffin waxes refined liquids
Petroleum coke refined liquids
Non-specified oil products refined liquids
Industrial waste biomass
Municipal waste (renewable) biomass
Municipal waste (non-renewable) biomass
Primary solid biofuels biomass
Biogases gas
Biogasoline refined liquids
Biodiesels refined liquids
Other liquid biofuels biomass
Non-specified primary biofuels and waste biomass
Charcoal biomass
Elec/heat output from non-specified manufactured gases  
Heat output from non-specified combustible fuels heat
Nuclear electricity
Hydro electricity
Geothermal electricity
Solar photovoltaics electricity
Solar thermal electricity
Tide, wave and ocean electricity
Wind electricity
Other sources electricity
Electricity electricity
Heat heat
Total  
Total of all energy sources  
Memo: Renewables  

Exceptions to one-to-one mapping from the categories in the IEA Energy Balances are noted here:

References

[IEA 2011] International Energy Agency, 2011, Energy Balances of OECD Countries: Documentation for Beyond 2020 Files, International Energy Agency, Paris, France. Link

[IEA 2019] International Energy Agency, 2019, Energy Balances of OECD Countries 1960-2017 and Energy Balances of Non-OECD Countries 1971-2017, International Energy Agency, Paris, France.