Content of an environment

A grid2op “environment” is represented as a folder on your computer. There is one folder for each environment.

Inside each folder / environment there are a few files (as of writing):

“grid.json” (a file): it is the file that describe the powergrid and that can be read by the default backend. It is today mandatory, but we could imagine a file in a different format. Note that in this case, this environment will not be compatible with the default backend.
“config.py” (a file): this file is imported when the environment is loaded. It is used to parametrize the way the environment is made. It should define a “config” variable. This “config” is dictionary that is used to initialize the environment. They key should be variable names. See example of such “config.py” file in provided environment.

It can of course contain other information, among them:

“chronics” (a folder) [recommended]: this folder contains the information to generate the production / loads at each steps. It can itself contain multiple folder, depending on the grid2op.Chronics.GridValue class used. In most available environment, the class grid2op.Chronics.Multifolder is used. This folder is optional, though it is present in most grid2op environment provided by default.
“grid_layout.json” (a file) [recommended]: gives, for each substation its coordinate (x,y) when plotted. It is optional, but we strongly encourage to have such. Otherwise, some tools might not work (including all the tool to represent it, such as the renderer (env.render), the EpisodeReplay or even some other dependency package, such as Grid2Viz).
“prods_charac.csv” (file): [see grid2op.Backend.Backend.load_redispacthing_data() for a description of this file] This contains all the information related to “ramps”, “pmin / pmax”, etc. This file is optional (grid2op can perfectly run without it). However, if absent, then the classes grid2op.Space.GridObjects.redispatching_unit_commitment_availble will be set to False thus preventing the use of some feature that requires it (for example redispatching or curtailment)
“storage_units_charac.csv” (file): [see grid2op.Backend.Backend.load_storage_data() for a description of this file] This file is used for a description of the storage units. It is a description of the storage units needed by grid2op. This is optional if you don’t have any storage units on the grid but required if there are (otherwise a BackendError will be raised).
“difficulty_levels.json” (file): This file is useful is you want to define different “difficulty” for your environment. It should be a valid json with keys being difficulty levels (“0” for easiest to “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, “5” , …, “10”, …, “100”, … or “competition” for the hardest / closest to reality difficulty).

And this is it for default environment.

You can highly customize everything. Only the “config.py” file is really mandatory:

if you don’t care about your environment to run on the default “Backend”, you can get rid of the “grid.json” file. In that case you will have to use the “keyword argument” “backend=…” when you create your environment (e.g env = grid2op.make(…, backend=…) ) This is totally possible with grid2op and causes absolutely no issues.
if you code another grid2op.Chronics.GridValue class, you can totally get rid of the “chronics” repository if you want to. In that case, you will need to either provide “chronics_class=…” in the config.py file, or initialize with env = grid2op.make(…, chronics_class=…)
if your grid data format contains enough information for grid2op to initialize the redispatching and / or storage data then you can freely use it and override the grid2op.Backend.Backend.load_redispacthing_data() or grid2op.Backend.Backend.load_storage_data() and read if from the grid file without any issues at all.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, try in one of the following pages:

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