Common Energy System Model

The Common Energy System Model (CESM) is a data model for multi-energy system modelling together with tooling for converting data between tool-specific formats. CESM uses a hub-and-spoke approach: each tool needs only one transformer (to and from CESM) instead of direct converters to every other tool.

          +----------------+
          |     CESM       |
          |  Data Model    |
          +--+----------+--+
             |          |
  +-------------+    +--+----------+
  |   Tool A    |    |   Tool B    |
  | Data Format |    | Data Format |
  +-------------+    +-------------+

CESM is designed to work well with other relevant standards like the IEC-CIM and QUDT. It has roots in ines-spec, but is built from the ground up to conform with ontology standards and to have a clear separation between specification and implementation.

Where to start

Section Description

Installation

Set up CESM and install dependencies.

Quickstart

Load sample data, inspect it, and run format conversions.

Specification

Understand the data model: entities, methods, temporal model, and data formats.

Schema Reference

Auto-generated reference for all classes and enumerations in the LinkML schema.

Supported Formats

Overview of supported input and output formats.

Developer Guide

Architecture, adding new formats, and writing transformers.

Source code

The source code and LinkML schema are available on GitHub.

Design principles

  • Standard-based — built on LinkML with integration to IEC-CIM and QUDT ontologies.

  • Tool-agnostic — defines the data model, not the tool. Transformers handle conversions to and from tool-specific formats.

  • Separation of concerns — the specification (LinkML schema) is independent of the implementation (Python readers, writers, and transformers).

  • Version-aware transformers — each tool can have multiple transformer versions, one per tool version, all targeting the same CESM version. This allows the same CESM hub to interoperate with different releases of the same tool without breaking existing transformers.