WattDepotCli Version 2.0

My partner and I have updated our WattDepot Client project. This improved command line based program can now take 3 more commands and provide you with a good idea of what is happening in the grid of Oahu's power plants.

In terms of functionality I feel that our client program does everything it's supposed to. Yet, it's not the shiniest of code. There's a lot of polish that needs to be applied still. More tests and error checks can still be applied to the program in order to cover some vulnerabilities. That's probably one of our weaknesses. WattDepot-Cli-Umikumalua still needs more polishing. What we were able to do was to create more exceptions to handle things like null pointer errors and making sure that a source/power plant existed before we threw that name into a function. These tests and error handlers have made things look better, but it hasn't made me feel safer about it.

I've worked really hard on upgrading the way the command line interface works. Before, the interface was really just one big class that was extended. But now, I understand how to make a interface and how to use different classes that are highly flexible and scalable. If I wanted to add more functionality to just one command, there would be room to expand and it would not cause all kinds of havoc.

A new tool I was introduced to was HackyStat. It's a type of monitor that tracks your actions when your developing software. So it can show you how often you've updated your project and code, or how much time you've put into a certain task. It's definitely worth looking into. I say this not because my grade in class depends on it, but because when it comes to productivity you should want to have some insight into what you are doing and what you think you should be doing. It's another way of reflecting on your capabilities and habits. Even if it's that helpful or improving your skills, it can still serve as proof that you did something.

Although it may seem to be a complicated and unimportant system, I have used this client software to derive some useful facts and insights into how my island home of Oahu operates.

Using this Client I built, I conducted a test for the month of November to determine which day had the maximum and minimum power generated and which day had the maximum and minimum carbon emitted. These tests looked at a particular plant or a network of plants and calculated the amount of carbon or power that was emitted for a particular day based on an interval of checking. What I found out was quite interesting. Our habits shine through even in the data. Based on the outputted data (which you can access here), the SIM_OAHU_GRID was at the peak during weekdays. A peak day like November 16th and 17th saw 995 MegaWatts of power being generated within the Oahu grid. On the other hand during the weekend, energy emissions were down to to 665 MegaWatts of power being generated which is about two thirds of the usual power consumption. The results for carbon emissions were in the same pattern as for power generation, as expected. Since there was more power being generated the carbon emissions rose as well. Emissions ranged from a weekend low of 22.8 million lbs to the weekday 29.9 million lbs of carbon. I would like to think that Oahu is a very industrious city and most of our power consumption is used during weekdays because of businesses.

Feel free to take a look at my distribution package and the WattDepot-Cli project page. here