Crop processing demand

Crop processing energy needs coefficients

The estimation of crop processing energy in the M-LED framework is based on a wide literature survey of crop-specific per-kg of yield processing energy. The standard numbers considered are reported in the .\MLED_database\input_folder\crop_processing.csv file for 15 main crops. The file can be extended with additional crops simply adding new lines of data with crop names following the MapSPAM crop abbreviation standard nomenclature.

Coefficients-to-clusters parsing

Energy requirement coefficients are parsed to clusters based on the current yield of each crop at each cluster, which is calculated by multiplying the crop-specific cropland area in each cluster by the cluster-specific crop yield of that crop. Both sources of information are extracted in clusters within the M-LED framework based on MapSPAM raster database.

Load curves

A standard load curve functional form is assumed for crop processing facilities at each cluster. This is reported in the .\MLED_hourly.py file as the following code line:

load_curve_cp = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0.0833, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]

where each number expresses the share of total daily crop processing electricity consumption at each of the 24 hours of the day.

The absolute load values of the curve are adjusted on a monthly-based based on the crop-specific harvesting season at each cluster, which are reported in the .\MLED_database\input_folder\crops_cfs_ndays_months.xlsx spreadsheet. These are derived from the FAO crop calendar, which is a useful reference for potential edits to adapt the database to other settings.