  In this paper we investigate the approximation properties of the
coarse-graining procedure applied to kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of lattice
stochastic dynamics. We provide both analytical and numerical evidence that the
hierarchy of the coarse models is built in a systematic way that allows for
error control in both transient and long-time simulations. We demonstrate that
the numerical accuracy of the CGMC algorithm as an approximation of stochastic
lattice spin flip dynamics is of order two in terms of the coarse-graining
ratio and that the natural small parameter is the coarse-graining ratio over
the range of particle/particle interactions. The error estimate is shown to
hold in the weak convergence sense. We employ the derived analytical results to
guide CGMC algorithms and we demonstrate a CPU speed-up in demanding
computational regimes that involve nucleation, phase transitions and
metastability.
