EnergyPlus version 8.7 and Erl variables

[tsnouidui]

Some BCVTB examples which were working with E+ version 5 and 6 are no longer working with E+ version 7.0.

One of of our examples that uses El variable has the object below which is essentially used to send output variable of the Erl variable to external programs (through the ExternalInterface of E+).

  EnergyManagementSystem:OutputVariable,
    Erl Shading Control Status,  !- Name
    Shade_Signal_01,                !- EMS Variable Name
    Averaged,                             !- Type of Data in Variable
    ZoneTimeStep,                     !- Update Frequency
    ,                                            !- EMS Program or Subroutine Name
    ;                                            !- Units

Older versions of E+ were able to get access to the object leveraging functions such as GetVariableKeys/GetVariableKeyCountandType using as variable name "Erl Shading Control Status" and as variable key "EMS".

With the latest version of E+ (7.0), we get

Simulation model has no variable "ERL SHADING CONTROL STATUS" with key "EMS".