MENSA - a regionalized version of MARKAL, the IEA linear programming model for energy-systems analysis

For several years member countries of the International Energy Agency have been utilizing a linear programming energy systems analysis model, MARKAL, to assit in devising strategies for energy research. MENSA, a regionalized version of MARKAL, has been developed to allow a national energy system to be represented as a number of regional subsystems with the possibility of energy flows, including electricity, between regions. The model has been applied to analyzing the economic feasibility of interconnecting the several autonomous electricity grids which exist in southeast Australia. The results indicate that a high-capacity link between Victoria and South Australia would probably not be justified before 2000 but that a low-capacity link could produce significant cost savings for the interconnected grids.