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iPool & Apollo v26.3.4 — What's New

This release delivers new command line options, expanded output files, and significant simulation accuracy improvements to iPool, alongside major Apollo updates including new dashboards, full Scenario Designer coverage, and a redesigned Vantage module. A summary of changes that may affect existing workflows is at the bottom of this document.

iPool​

New Commands​

CommandDescription
-port <ID1> [ID2 ...]Load one or more named portfolio IDs. Replaces -portfolio.
-port ALLLoad every portfolio in the model.
-p <Prices.csv>Load an external price trace to revalue a dispatched scenario under new prices without re-running the dispatch engine (RECALC mode).
-NoDis -p <portfolio>Fast simulation scoped to a named portfolio participant.
-NoDis -port ALLFast simulation across all generation sites.
-genlistGenerate a comprehensive generator list from CAPEG files. Automatically separates bidirectional supply and demand units and handles sites with multiple fuel types.
-CAPEGFile <filename>Process a CAPEG generator file and automatically create out-of-merit operation bids.
-histskipAllow a historical simulation to continue when data files are missing. Missing days are logged and skipped; all available days are processed.
-FCMax FLEXApply both scaling factors and flex adjustments to demand forecasts from the command line.
-opELP ALLEnable Energy Limited Plant optimisation for every storage in the model.
-opELP <StorID>Enable Energy Limited Plant optimisation for a specific storage unit.
-opbid <StorID> [-opbid <StorID2> ...]Optimise bids for one or more storage units. Multiple units can now be specified.
-pcsr <value>Set percentage spinning reserve. Automatically enables spinning reserve dispatch — -spin 1 is no longer required separately.
-remark <text>Append remark text to the scenario description when saving.
-s <ID>Specify a new simulation ID when saving a scenario.

New Reports & Output Files​

TraceCon.csv — Per-interval contract trace. Records contract state at every dispatch interval for each active contract. Columns: ID, NetPrc, StrPrc, RefPrc, Qty. Written alongside TraceLod.csv and TraceSto.csv.

Ev_HST.csv — Historical event capture. Captures unit outages and link derating events during historical simulations.

BidZone.csv and TraceZone.csv — Zonal reporting. Bidding behaviour and dispatch patterns broken down by market zone.

FuelZone.csv — Fuel type breakdown by zone. Shows generation mix across different market zones.

NetDem.csv — Net System Load output. Reports Demand minus Must-Run Generation for the Pool, Zones, and Regions. Values displayed to one decimal place.

ScenObj.csv — Scenario object tracking, extended with a contracts section: records contract ID, direction (BOUGHT/SOLD), participant ID, and portfolio ID.

StorOptBid.csv — Optimal storage bid file (renamed from StorPrc.csv). See the Notes for Existing Users section for format details.

Updated Reports​

TraceLod.csv — Two new columns added: Rev (Revenue = Price × Generation) and Cost (Price × Demand), per load site per interval.

TraceSte.csv and TracePrt.csv — New Cost and Fuel (fuel type) columns added per interval for generation sites and participants.

Summary.csv — Now includes zone-level data aggregation alongside regional totals, and a fuel type column for visibility into generation results by fuel type.

MRGCFac and MRHCFac — Dedicated SOLAR and WIND columns added to must-run capacity factor reports.

Simulation Improvements​

Marginal price detection. A bug in bid stack traversal could cause the simulation to pass the true marginal bid and settle at an incorrect, often higher, price. This is corrected. Prices in dispatch simulations will be more accurate and may differ from prior runs.

Demand bid behaviour under high prices. A related issue caused demand bids to remain active longer than correct during constrained or high-price conditions. Corrected alongside the marginal price fix.

Link flow precision. Link flow values are now stored as double-precision rather than integers. The previous truncation was causing up to 0.5 MW error per link per interval in constrained network dispatches. Link flow outputs may differ from prior runs.

GWAP calculation. Volume-weighted average price in period summary reports was calculated using both generation and demand energy in the denominator, producing a load-weighted result rather than a true generation-weighted average price (GWAP). The denominator now uses generation energy only.

Revenue and cost scaling. Revenue and cost figures in 5-minute dispatch runs were not correctly scaled to MWh-based values. Corrected.

CO2 emissions scaling. CO2 output values are now correctly multiplied by the dispatch interval size. Prior values were overstated. See the Notes for Existing Users section.

Storage dispatch pairing. The optimal storage pairing algorithm now scans for the true maximum-profit charge/discharge window. Storage dispatch results may differ from prior runs.

Storage energy limits. Energy-limited dispatch behaviour has been updated for storage units in simulations shorter than seven days.

Block price used in dispatch timing. Block price is now updated during report refresh, improving dispatch timing decisions for energy-limited plants including battery storage.

Bug Fixes​

  • Historical simulation could generate spurious outage events when a unit was at zero output for a single 5-minute interval. An outage event now requires more than 30 minutes of consecutive zero output.
  • Region demand figures in reports were being rounded down, understating actual demand. Corrected.
  • Demand forecasts were losing sub-MW precision, potentially affecting dispatch outcomes. Corrected.
  • Hourly average figures (PrcHr, DemHr, GenHr, SMPHr) in historical reports were inaccurate due to integer division. Corrected.
  • Revenue and cost calculations were slightly understated due to sent-out generation being truncated to an integer. Corrected.
  • Contract lookups by seller ID could return wrong results due to a field-matching logic error. Corrected.
  • Load profile lookups at midnight boundaries returned incorrect MW values. Corrected.
  • Saved scenarios had truncated or missing descriptions when saved via command line. Corrected.
  • Scenario remark text passed via -remark was silently ignored. Restored.
  • Monte Carlo simulations were hanging indefinitely at approximately sample 42 in year-long runs. The root cause was a date overflow producing an infinite loop. Corrected.
  • Loading event schedules, WAPOS/DAPOS files, and historical data was failing with file-open errors after the 64-bit migration. Corrected.
  • A crash could occur when reading historical 5-minute data if a region had no connected links. Corrected.
  • Demand bids were dispatched incorrectly under network-constrained conditions. Corrected.
  • Demand scaling factor was being applied twice during event-triggered scaling. Corrected.
  • The FLEX demand function was applying a Scale operation instead of a Flex operation. Corrected.
  • GAS and HYD optimisation bidding behaviour was incorrect. Corrected.
  • A divide-by-zero could occur in zone trace output for non-5-minute simulations. Corrected.

Apollo​

New Dashboards & Views​

Economics Dashboard. A new station-level economics view shows Revenue, Cost, and Profit as time-series charts for a selected site. A statistics panel beneath the chart shows total and average figures, an administrative pricing toggle (when APrices.csv is available), a COAL price cap indicator, fuel type breakdown cards, and a sortable station breakdown table with revenue, cost, profit, and margin columns.

Contract Settlement Dashboard. A new dashboard for Contract nodes shows contract price and quantity traces from TraceCon.csv. A dual-axis chart displays prices as lines alongside quantity as columns. A stat bar shows average Strike Price, Reference Price, Net Price, and Quantity.

Portfolio Tree with Contract Nodes. The portfolio hierarchy now groups sites by sub-group (e.g., PSTNS, LOADS) and shows Contract nodes under each sub-group. Contract data is sourced from the scenario file.

Sub-Group Trace Charts. Portfolio sub-groups now have dedicated trace chart dashboards with Demand Trace, Price Trace, and Generation Trace views.

Net Load in Comparison View. Net Load (Demand minus VRE Generation) is now a selectable column in the Comparison View for Pool, Region, and Zone objects, with MAE and MAPE error statistics.

Storage View — Dual-Pane Layout. The Storage View now separates the Level (MWh) trace into a dedicated upper pane with its own Y-axis, while Charge/Discharge and Price remain in the lower pane. The scenario name is shown in the chart subtitle.

Zonal Hierarchy and Zonal Trace View. A new Zone object type sits between Pool and Region in the scenario tree for zonal dispatch scenarios. Zone detection is automatic — no configuration required. Dynamic filter buttons allow toggling between Pool, Zone, and Region levels. A Zonal Trace View for Pool objects shows price, demand, and generation traces.

Regional Trace View. New trace views for Pool and Region nodes: Regional Price Trace, Regional Demand Trace, and Regional Generation Trace, selectable via a dropdown.

Scenario Designer — Full Command Coverage​

The Scenario Designer now covers 100% of iPool v26.3 command line flags, up from approximately 51% in the previous release. All iPool options are now accessible from the Apollo UI without manual command line editing.

Key areas added in this release: RECALC workflow with external price trace, portfolio chip lists, storage optimisation inputs, demand forecast settings (full iLoad mode with file inputs), optimisation block parameters, must-run solar and wind file selectors, CAPEG file input, and FC Max Flex. The Save-As option is now a three-state selector (Don't Save / Save In-Place / Save As).

The portfolio flag has been corrected from -portfolio to -port to match iPool v26.3. Apollo users who saved Scenario Designer configurations using the old flag should re-save their scenarios.

Vantage Module​

The Vantage module has been redesigned with a card-based main view. Each data type — demand forecasts, VRE forecasts, iPool database files, and bid sets — is now shown on its own card with freshness status, version information, and download actions.

Setup wizard. First-run setup now uses a step-by-step wizard: connect and authenticate, configure download folders, and set auto-refresh interval. Subsequent opens show all settings at once.

Skip up-to-date files. Download Latest now skips files that are already current. Only new or updated files are downloaded.

Category Browser. A history browser allows filtering and downloading specific historical forecast files by category, horizon, geography, and date range.

Gateway v3.0.0 support. Vantage now supports Gateway v3, with automatic version detection. New capabilities when connected to a v3 Gateway include binary iPool data file downloads with progress tracking, new forecast horizons (Current Hourly hybrid and Custom), and completeness status indicators per horizon. Existing v2.x settings are automatically migrated.

Apollo Web Access​

Apollo is now available as a web application. Users can access Apollo through a standard browser with no Electron installation required. The web build connects to a Gateway server for authentication and scenario access. The Electron desktop application is unchanged.

Chart & UI Improvements​

  • Right-clicking a chart series opens a style menu: change colour, series type (line/area/column), line width, dash style, and marker visibility. Style choices persist for the session.
  • New Y-axis controls in Chart Settings: force all Y-axes to start at zero; freeze axes; set manual min/max on primary and secondary axes.
  • Dual Y-axis charts now align zero proportionally across both axes for clearer cross-series comparison.
  • New grid line checkboxes in Chart Settings: Y Major, Y Minor, X Major, X Minor.
  • MAE and MAPE statistics added to the Comparison Chart Analysis Summary table for Demand comparisons.
  • The selected time view (daily/weekly/monthly/all) in the Comparison Chart now persists when switching between scenarios.
  • Chart PNG/JPG exports now use the actual on-screen chart dimensions.
  • The Highcharts watermark has been removed globally.
  • Scenario load time is approximately 60% faster. Unit-level data loads on demand via a "Load Units" button in the tree.
  • The scenario tree has been visually redesigned: active scenario highlighted in blue, teal border accent for simulated scenarios, purple for historical.
  • A unified Support panel in the header provides AI chat and help site access in one dropdown.
  • A "Clear Application Cache" button is available in App Settings under Maintenance.

Bug Fixes​

  • Scenario Designer file-picker dropdowns were showing empty lists. Corrected.
  • Scenario Designer could remain stuck in a loading state after the above fix. Corrected.
  • Command Module right panel had no width when opened without visiting the Scenario Designer first. Corrected.
  • Switching to or from the Economics dashboard was resetting date selectors in other open charts to year 2001. Corrected.
  • Support chat and help site links were non-functional due to a licence validation response issue. Corrected.
  • The Gatekeeper API base URL was incorrect, breaking authentication and Vantage endpoint calls. Corrected.
  • Various UI stability fixes (tree node styling, contract stats panel, reactive state errors).

Notes for Existing Users​

The following changes may require updates to existing scripts, batch files, or post-processing tools before deploying v26.3.4.

What ChangedWhat to Do
-portfolio flag renamed to -portUpdate all batch files and job schedulers. Re-save any Scenario Designer configurations that used the old flag.
OutofMerit.bid renamed to OM_<ScenarioID>.bidUpdate any downstream tools that reference the old filename. A scenario with ID BASE2026 now produces OM_BASE2026.bid.
StorPrc.csv renamed to StorOptBid.csv with new column layoutUpdate parsers. New columns: Storage ID, Gen Site ID, Generation Bid Price, Discharged Intervals, Generation (MWh), Discharge (MWh), Discharge efficiency. The first row is now a scenario ID header.
CO2 output values now correctly scaled by dispatch interval sizeFor 5-minute simulations, reported CO2 values will be approximately 12× lower than prior runs (and are now correct). Scenario analysis relying on absolute CO2 figures will need recalibration.
Marginal price and demand bid fixesPrices in dispatch scenarios may differ from prior runs. Results from v26.3.4 are more accurate.
Link flows now double-precisionLink flow outputs may differ from prior runs when historical data contains fractional MW values.