Backbone

Backbone is a generic energy network optimization tool written in GAMS. Backbone can model a large range of energy system features, including but not limited to
* Generation, storages, transmission, and conversion between energy carriers,
* operation and investments,
* Energy, emissions, materials, and costs,
* forecasts and reserves,
* hydro power reservoirs, cascades, and delays,

Backbone has been designed to be highly adaptable in different dimensions: temporal, spatial, technology representation and market design. Backbone can support multiple different models due to the data driven model structure, modifiable temporal structure, and varying lengths of the time steps.

This flexibility has been used to model a wide range of applications such as
* Multi-sector studies: power, district heating, transport, buildings, and industry,
* Electricity distribution grids,
* Building thermodynamic properties and heating
* Multi-objective optimization
* Biomass supply model
* P2X and carbon economy
* LCA emissions

Backbone is available at https://gitlab.vtt.fi/backbone/backbone.

Backbone Wiki hosts introduction, documentation, example models, etc. https://gitlab.vtt.fi/backbone/backbone/-/wikis/home

If you use Backbone in a published work, please cite the following publication, which describes the Backbone energy systems modelling framework https://doi.org/10.3390/en12173388.

Releases:
v3.12 - 2025-08-14
v3.11 - 2025-02-04
v3.10 - 2024-09-19
v3.9 - 2024-04-24
v3.8 - 2024-01-08
v3.7 - 2023-10-31
v3.6 - 2023-09-19
v3.5 - 2023-08-24
... see changelog for full details