Properly generate balancing areas data

[staadecker]

What are balancing areas?

"Balancing areas" as I understand it are groups of load zones where reserve requirements must be met (e.g. all online capacity in this region contribute to the reserves for this region).

Problem

switch get_inputs currently generates balancing_areas.csv and zone_balancing_areas.csv input files. However, nowhere in the model code are either of these files used. Further, the column in load_zones.csv that should be used to specify the balancing areas is missing. This results in the model assuming the entire WECC is one big balancing area.

Consequences

Any past runs using reserves treated the entire WECC as one balancing area. (so extra capacity in the south could be counted as reserves for the north even if in practice transmitting that capacity is impossible)

Solutions

Stop generating balancing_areas.csv and zone_balancing_areas.csv and instead add an extra column zone_balancing_area to load_zones.csv with the load zone's balancing area. See this Python file for details.