integrating cube and emfac for automated ghg analysis

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 1

Citilabs International User ConferenceNovember 1, 2011

Integrating Cube and EMFAC for Automated GHG Analysis

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 2

Overview

EMFAC Overview Typical GHG Process Issues in Streamlining Sample Automated Application Issues with new EMFAC 2011

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 3

EMFAC Overview

California emissions model Administered by California Air

Resources Board Tool for required conformity analysis Operates in console mode

– User steps through series of screens

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 4

EMFAC Inputs

Year – for vehicle fleet, miles per gallon Region or County Trips (daily total) Vehicle miles of travel (VMT)

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 5

VMT Stratification

Daily VMT Daily by Speed Bin By Speed, Vehicle Type

By Speed, Type, Hour

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 6

VMT Inputs

Most users input daily VMT by speed bin Even if model has separate trucks, most use

default vehicle type percents Even if model has separate time periods,

most use default hourly percents– Different VMT by speed for different time periods

are used– Generally summed to daily VMT totals by speed

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 7

Typical Model to EMFAC Process

Run Cube model HIGHWAY script

– Output VMT by speed bin– Crosstab in PRN file

Manual paste from PRN to Excel Manual paste or retype to EMFAC VMT

input screen Import EMFAC output (CSV) to Excel

– Calculate GHG outside EMFAC

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 8

Issues for Streamlining

Cube crosstab output– Search PRN file OR– Write custom crosstab script

EMFAC console operation– Easier to automate with batch from script

EMFAC console input– Standard is type into screen

GHG Calculation– Needs to be done outside EMFAC

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 9

Cube Crosstab Output

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 10

Streamlining Options

Find way to operate EMFAC in batch mode Replicate EMFAC in Excel Replicate EMFAC in Cube script

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GHG Solution

Develop custom program to format EMFAC input and output

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 12

GHG_Inp Functions

Read Voyager PRN file– Extract VMT from multiple time periods

Assemble ASCII file for EMFAC input Run EMFAC in batch mode Read EMFAC output (CSV) Calculate and report GHG

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Implementation: Alameda County

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 14

Sample GHG Output

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 15

EMFAC 2011 Issues

Passenger vehicle process similar to EMFAC 2007 Truck process in separate program

– Requires Windows 7

Scenario manager in separate program– Runs using MS Access– Inputs in Excel workbooks– Automation not obvious

Dowling Associates Citilabs International User Conference November 1, 2011 Page 16

GHG Credits

Tom Kear (now at Cambridge Systematics)– Knows what’s in the EMFAC “black box”

Kym Sterner (Dowling)– Voyager scripts, and followed the trail for

EMFAC integration

Joe Holland (Dowling)– Programmed the GHG_Inp process