The simplification ``snakemake`` rules prepare **approximations** of the full model, for which it is computationally viable to co-optimize generation, storage and transmission capacities.
-:mod:`simplify_network` transforms the transmission grid to a 380 kV only equivalent network, while
-:mod:`cluster_network` uses a `k-means <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-means_clustering>`_ based clustering technique to partition the network into a given number of zones and then reduce the network to a representation with one bus per zone.
- Jonas Hörsch and Tom Brown. `The role of spatial scale in joint optimisations of generation and transmission for European highly renewable scenarios <https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07617>`_), *14th International Conference on the European Energy Market*, 2017. `arXiv:1705.07617 <https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.07617>`_, `doi:10.1109/EEM.2017.7982024 <https://doi.org/10.1109/EEM.2017.7982024>`_.
After simplification and clustering of the network, additional components may be appended in the rule :mod:`add_extra_components` and the network is prepared for solving in :mod:`prepare_network`.
