Example: Standards on power plants
Example on standard setting for metadata: power plant information
Context
The purpose of this document is to illustrate, which options are available to reference resources for a given entry in a data table. As an example, resources for the concept of an onshore wind farm, a hydropower station, as well as a lithium battery are considered. The resources themselves are taken from general-purpose, community-edited knowledge graphs such as Wikidata or dbpedia, or specialized ontologies such as the open energy ontology.
Services to provide resources
List of ontologies used to reference power plant types:
* Wikidata - knowledge base, can be read and edited by both humans and machines, collects structured data in a free and collaborative way * DBpedia - knowledge graphs that extracts structured content from the information created in the Wikipedia * Open Energy Ontology - domain ontology within the field of energy system modelling * EuroVoc - multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union * GEMET - GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus updated by EEA and Eionet * [FAO] * KBpedia - open-source knowledge graph * IEC Electropedia
Example 1: Onshore Wind farm
This example compares resources for onshore wind farm definition:
* wikidata:Q50687555 literal name: onshore wind farm definition: group of wind turbines on land
* dbr:Onshore_wind_farm literal name: actual redirects to dbr:Wind_farm definition: A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. ...
* oeo:OEO_00000311 literal name: onshore wind farm definition: An onshore wind farm is a wind farm that is build on land, ( where a windfarm (OEO_00000447) is a power plant that has wind energy converting units as parts.
* gemet:9336 literal name: wind power station definition: Power station which uses wind to drive a turbine which creates electricity.
* iec:415-01-03 literal name: wind power station definition: power station comprising a group or groups of wind turbine generator systems
The problems we encounter here are: GEMET does not offer a resource to directly describe an onshore wind farm. Rather, what is available is a resource related to a wind farm in general. Similarly, KBpedia has only a resource relating to a wind farm. Same applies to IEC.DBpedia offers a resource link for an onshore wind farm, but does not provide a separate definition. On the other hand, wikidata and the open energy ontology offer specific definition, which seem to be very similar, if one identifies wind turbines with wind energy converting units.
Example 2: Hydropower plant
This example compares different definitions of hydropower plants provided by various ontologies/controlled vocabularies:
* wikidata:Q1591738: literal name: hydroelectric power station definition: facility generating electric power using hydroelectricity
* oeo:OEO_00010086: literal name: hydro power plant definition: A hydro power plant is a power plant having an aggregate of hydro power generating units as its power generating unit parts.
* gemet:4098: literal name: hydroelectric power plant definition: Power station which operates with the free renewable source of energy provided by falling water.
* kbpedia:HydroelectricPowerStation literal name: Hydroelectric power station definition: This commodity category is for hydro power plant. This product category corresponds to the UNSPSC code: 26131503.
* iec:602-01-04 literal name: hydroelectric power station definition: a power station in which the gravitational energy of water is converted into electricity
* thinkhome:HydroElectricPlant literal name: definition: Hydropower plants capture the energy of falling water to generate electricity.
Note, that dbpedia and EuroVoc do not provide a resource specifically describing a hydropower plant. They rather offer definitions on the general concept of hydropower technology. kbpedia offers no explicit definition, but rather refers to the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code and its entry No. 26131503. Searching for this resource on the landing page returns only a literal description as 'Hydro power plants' without further explanation.
Example 3: Solar PV plant
* wikidata:Q1003207 literal name: photovoltaic power station definition: type of solar power station, large-scale photovoltaic system
* dbr:Photovoltaic_power_station literal name: photovoltaic power station definition: A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power.
* oeo:OEO_00000324 literal name: photovoltaic power plant definition: A photovoltaic power plant is a solar power plant that has PV panels as parts.
* kbpedia:PhotovoltaicPowerStation literal name: photovoltaic power station definition: Large-scale photovoltaic system.
* gemet:7910 literal name: solar power station definition: Plant where energy is generated using radiation from the sun.
* iec:602-01-29 literal name: solar power station definition: a power station producing electrical energy from solar radiation directly by photovoltaic effect, or indirectly by thermal transformation
Example 4: Heat pump
* wikidata:Q131313 literal name: heat pump definition: device that transfers thermal energy in the opposite direction of spontaneous heat transfer
* dbr:Heat_pump literal name: Heat pump definition: A heat pump is a device that transfers thermal energy between spaces, usually between an enclosed space and the outdoors.
* oeo:OEO_00000212 literal name: heat pump definition: A heat pump is a heater that transforms low temperature heat to high temperature heat using external energy.
* kbpedia:HeatPump literal name: heat pump definition: The collection of all heat pumps. A type of AirCoolingDevice, MechanicalDevice, ElectricalDevice, ExternallyPoweredDevice, and AirHeatingDevice.
* eurovoc:2549 literal name: heat pump definition: none (thesaurus)
* gemet:3904 literal name: heat pump definition: A device which transfers heat from a cooler reservoir to a hotter one, expending mechanical energy in the process, especially when the main purpose is to heat the hot reservoir rather than refrigerate the cold one.
* un:1002851 literal name: HEAT PUMPS definition: none (thesaurus)
* agrovoc:24398 literal name: heat pumps definition: none (thesaurus)
* dco:HeatPumpAppliance literal name: Heat pump appliance definition: A heat pump appliance is used to warm and, direction in which heat transfer would take place without
* hpont:HeatPumpSystem literal name: Heat Pump System definition: A system composed of one or many devices that transfer heat from a colder area to a hotter area by using mechanical energy
No entry for heat pump in Electropedia: The World's Online Electrotechnical Vocabulary provided by the International Electrotechnical Commission. The dco definition is apparently not properly reviewed.
Example 5: Thermal power plant
List of examples for thermal power plant resources
* wikidata:Q200297: literal name: thermal power station definition: facility where heat is converted to electric power
* dbr:Lithium-ion_battery: literal name: Lithium-ion battery definition: A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery composed of cells in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode through an electrolyte to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging.
* oeo:OEO_00000248 literal name: lithium-ion battery definition: A lithium-ion battery is a battery that is rechargeable and in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge, and back when charging. Li-ion batteries use an intercalated lithium compound as one electrode material.
* kbpedia:ThermalPowerGenerationComplex literal name: thermal power plant definition:
* gemet:8443 literal name: thermal power plant definition: A power-generating plant which uses heat to produce energy. Such plants may burn fossil fuels or use nuclear energy to produce the necessary thermal energy.
* iec:602-01-22 literal name: thermal power station definition: a power station in which electricity is generated by conversion of thermal energy
Example 6: Lithium-ion battery
This example compares resources for lithium-ion batteries provided by the different providers:
* wikidata:Q2822895: literal name: lithium-ion battery definition: rechargeable battery type
* dbr:Lithium-ion_battery: literal name: Lithium-ion battery definition: A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery composed of cells in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode through an electrolyte to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging.
* oeo:OEO_00000248 literal name: lithium-ion battery definition: A lithium-ion battery is a battery that is rechargeable and in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge, and back when charging. Li-ion batteries use an intercalated lithium compound as one electrode material.
* kbpedia:LithiumIonBattery literal name: lithium-ion battery definition: A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging.
* gemet:745 literal name: battery definition: A series of cells, each containing the essentials for producing voltaic electricity, connected together.
* iec:482-05-07 literal name: lithium ion battery definition: secondary battery with an organic solvent electrolyte and positive and negative electrodes which utilize an intercalation compound in which lithium is stored
Note that GEMET does not offer the concept of a lithium-ion battery, available sub-classes are alkaline battery, button-cell battery, cell (energy), and electric battery.
References
Booshehri, M. et al. Introducing the Open Energy Ontology: Enhancing data interpretation and interfacing in energy systems analysis. Energy and AI 5, 100074 (2021).
Simon Clark, Francesca L. Bleken, Simon Stier, Eibar Flores, Casper Welzel Andersen, Marek Marcinek, Anna Szczesna-Chrzan, Miran Gaberscek, M. Rosa Palacin, Martin Uhrin, and Jesper Friis, Toward a Unified Description of Battery Data, 12, 2102762 () https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aenm.202102702
