Installation & Setup Guide¶

This page walks you through one‑time installation of every piece you need for the CIMS → COPPER → SILVER linkage:

Common prerequisites (solver, Conda)
CIMS environment & repo
COPPER environment & repo
SILVER environment & repo
Linkage runner environment & repo
(Optional) IDEA dashboard for interactive charts

You can perform the steps on Windows, macOS, or linux. All commands below assume a POSIX shell (bash, zsh, or Git Bash on Windows).

1 · Common prerequisites¶

Requirement	Recommended version	Notes
Solver	IBM CPLEX ≥ 22.1	Fastest and tested in production; GLPK, Gurobi, CBC also work
Conda	Miniconda 24.x	Used to isolate each model’s Python environment - venv or any virtual environment manager will work
CODERS API key	—	Needed to fetch existing Canadian capacity, demand, and VRE data from CODERS DB. If you dont have an API key please sign up for one using the coders website

Install CPLEX/GLPK and Miniconda first, then reboot or refresh your shell so conda is on the path.

2 · Set up CIMS¶

# Clone the model (SESIT fork)
git clone https://gitlab.com/sesit/cims-models-fork
cd cims-models-fork

# Create & activate the environment
conda create -n cims-env python=3.13
conda activate cims-env

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Deactivate when finished
conda deactivate

Branch pin – The linkage expects the main branch of the fork.

3 · Set up COPPER¶

# Clone
git clone https://gitlab.com/sesit/copper.git
cd copper

# Check out the linkage‑compatible branch
git checkout prov_phase_out

# Environment
conda create -n copper python=3.10
conda activate copper
pip install -r requirements.txt
conda deactivate

4 · Set up SILVER¶

git clone https://gitlab.com/sesit/silver.git
cd silver
git checkout datetime

conda create -n silver_env python=3.9
conda activate silver_env
pip install -r requirements.txt
conda deactivate

5 · Set up the linkage runner¶

git clone https://gitlab.com/sesit/M3-linkages.git
cd cims-copper-silver

conda create -n linkage python  # uses your default Python version
conda activate linkage
pip install -r requirements.txt

You’re now ready to run scenarios with python linkage.py … (see the Quick‑start Tutorial).

6 · (Optional) IDEA dashboard¶

git clone https://gitlab.com/sesit/idea-dash.git
cd idea-dash
conda env create -f environment.yml  # creates env `idea-dash`

After a linkage run, you can launch IDEA (either manually or automatically via the config) to browse results.

At a glance: environment names & branches¶

Model	Conda env	Branch
CIMS	`cims-env`	`main`
COPPER	`copper`	`coders-pull`
SILVER	`silver_env`	`datetime`
Runner	`linkage`	`main`

Use these exact names so the linkage script can activate envs automatically.