# MicrogridModeler

> Audit-ready, browser-first techno-economic and resilience screening for off-grid and grid-connected microgrids combining fixed or dual-axis solar PV, wind, battery storage, and diesel generators. A physics-based engine searches candidate sizes, simulates hourly dispatch across the full project life, evaluates component failures and repairs, and reports lifecycle economics — running entirely in the browser with no sign-up.

MicrogridModeler focuses on reproducible early-stage microgrid feasibility and resilience. Its current differentiators:

- **Deterministic candidate search.** The engine evaluates a sampled capacity grid, rejects candidates that fail supported hard constraints, and ranks the feasible set by net present cost. Search boundaries and nearby joint-axis alternatives still require analyst review.
- **Reproducible & auditable.** Identical inputs and disturbance seeds reproduce identical results. The versioned run package records assumptions, provenance, resilience outputs, and violations; the complete hourly CSV exposes every energy-flow channel.
- **Physics-based, transparent.** Solar geometry → Hottel clear-sky envelope → Erbs diffuse split → fixed/dual-axis POA → NOCT PV, synthetic or measured wind, then 8,760-hour multi-year dispatch and full lifecycle economics (NPC, LCOE, payback, IRR, diesel-only baseline).
- **Operational controls.** Four selectable energy-management systems: forecast-aware load following, cycle charging, diesel first, and state-of-charge maintaining. Independent equipment-unit counts, asymmetric battery efficiencies, generator startup delay, and wet-stacking hours are explicit.
- **Component resilience.** Seeded stochastic Monte Carlo or deterministic failures, per-asset failure probabilities and repair times, hourly fleet recovery, fixed/local/global event shifts, outage-survival curves, energy-not-served, recovery time, and all four resilience measures implemented by NPS Microgrid Planner v3.1.
- **Source-audited foundation.** Built from primary public methods and data (NSRDB, PVGIS, NASA POWER, ERA5, OpenEI URDB, NREL ATB, NREL EULP, and EIA) and a source-level audit of the MIT-licensed NPS Microgrid Planner. The audit and license notice ship in the repository.
- **Persistent workflow.** Content-addressed run caching, browser-local run history, and reusable design/component portfolios avoid recomputation and support repeatable comparisons.
- **Zero-install.** The interactive modeler and 20 reference benchmark projects run client-side in the browser. Bring your own 8,760-hour load CSV.
- **Public citation surfaces.** Implemented equations are available as HTML and Markdown; reference projects are available as JSON; the simulation endpoint publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 contract.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/): Product overview, the incumbent's blind spots, and what MicrogridModeler does differently.
- [Platform](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/platform): Product scope for intake, sizing, dispatch review, and export; the current interactive modeler runs in the browser.
- [Technology](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/technology): How the engine works — resource physics, four dispatch controllers, component disturbance/repair analysis, and lifecycle economics.
- [Benchmarks](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/benchmarks): Twenty public-data-backed reference projects (8 kW arctic telecom to 2 MW island feeder), each computed live in the browser.
- [Methodology](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/methodology): Implemented solar, wind, battery, dispatch, generator, optimization, economics, outage-survival, and NPS component-resilience equations with explicit scope boundaries.
- [Methodology Markdown](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/methodology.md): Plain-text, citation-ready version of the complete engineering methodology.
- [Software Comparison](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/compare): Source-linked MicrogridModeler, HOMER Pro, and Xendee comparison across optimization, chronology, generator fuel, operating systems, power flow, outputs, and public pricing.
- [API Documentation](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/docs/api): Public deterministic simulation endpoint for a benchmark key or complete 8,760-hour project payload.
- [OpenAPI 3.1 Contract](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/openapi.json): Machine-readable request, project, and response schema for `POST /api/v1/simulate`.
- [Benchmark JSON](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/benchmarks.json): Machine-readable inputs, starting sizes, provenance, deterministic outputs, and fingerprints for all 20 reference cases.
- [Pricing](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/pricing): Priced on workspace value, not per-seat licenses. Free tier with the full in-browser modeler.
- [Blog](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog): Evidence-backed off-grid microgrid planning guides, calculations, worked examples, and selective tool comparisons.
- [The Mathematics of Microgrid Optimization](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/mathematics-microgrid-optimization-grid-search-heuristics-milp): Rigorous guide to finite grid search, derivative-free optimization, and MILP—including what each method can and cannot prove.
- [8,760 Dispatch and Generator Part-Load Efficiency](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/8760-dispatch-generator-part-load-efficiency): Linear fuel curve, minimum load, battery SOC, cycle charging, and explicit dumped-energy audit.
- [Named-Seat vs Workspace Microgrid Software Pricing](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/named-seat-vs-workspace-microgrid-software-pricing): Fact-checked July 2026 public pricing and team-workflow cost analysis for HOMER Pro, Xendee, and MicrogridModeler.
- [Off-Grid Microgrid Feasibility Study: Guide and Checklist](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/off-grid-microgrid-feasibility-study): A 12-step planning workflow with an input checklist, original remote-clinic fuel sensitivity, hourly dispatch audit, report contents, and detailed-engineering handoff gates.
- [How to Size an Off-Grid Microgrid: 8,760-Hour Method](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/how-to-size-off-grid-microgrid): A capacity-search workflow with a worked Island guesthouse benchmark, load sensitivity, hard-hour audit, and practical PV, battery, converter, and diesel sizing rules.
- [Microgrid Load Profile Guide: Build and Validate an 8,760-Hour CSV](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-load-profile): A ten-step load-data workflow with an exact uploader contract, downloadable synthetic clinic profile and manifest, QA checklist, calendar rules, and fixed-design timing sensitivity.
- [MicrogridModeler vs HOMER Pro (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-homer-pro-2026): Comparison of MicrogridModeler, HOMER Pro, REopt, Xendee, and SAM for remote-site planning and microgrid coursework.
- [MicrogridModeler vs REopt (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-reopt-2026): Comparison of MicrogridModeler, REopt, HOMER Pro, Xendee, SAM, and spreadsheets for off-grid feasibility and DER optimization tool selection.
- [MicrogridModeler vs Xendee (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-xendee-2026): Comparison of MicrogridModeler, Xendee, HOMER Pro, REopt, SAM, DER-CAM, and spreadsheets for off-grid feasibility, DER portfolio planning, and commercial microgrid workflows.
- [MicrogridModeler vs SAM (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-sam-2026): Comparison of MicrogridModeler, SAM, HOMER Pro, REopt, Xendee, DER-CAM, and spreadsheets for off-grid feasibility, techno-economic analysis, and student microgrid planning.
- [MicrogridModeler vs Excel Spreadsheets (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-excel-spreadsheets-2026): Practical guide to using spreadsheets for load QA, assumptions, cost checks, and scenarios while moving repeatable 8,760-hour PV, battery, and diesel feasibility into purpose-built software.
- [MicrogridModeler vs DER-CAM (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-der-cam-2026): Comparison of chronological off-grid PV, battery, and diesel feasibility with DER-CAM multi-energy MILP planning, representative days, HOMER Pro, and REopt.
- [MicrogridModeler vs PyPSA (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-pypsa-2026): Comparison of browser-first off-grid PV, battery, and diesel feasibility with PyPSA code-based power-system optimization, HOMER Pro, and REopt.
- [MicrogridModeler vs OpenDSS (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-opendss-2026): Comparison of chronological off-grid PV, battery, and diesel feasibility with OpenDSS distribution-circuit, unbalanced power-flow, and QSTS analysis, plus HOMER Pro and REopt context.
- [MicrogridModeler vs Energy Toolbase (2026)](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/blog/microgrid-modeler-vs-energy-toolbase-2026): Comparison of deterministic off-grid PV, battery, and diesel feasibility with commercial solar-storage tariff analysis, financing, proposals, deployed controls, HOMER Pro, and REopt.
- [Modeler](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/modeler): The live, in-browser modeling and constraint-enforced sizing optimizer.

## Key facts

- Categories: microgrid optimization, off-grid and grid-connected energy modeling, techno-economic analysis, reliability, resilience, solar-plus-storage, wind, and energy-access engineering.
- Technologies modeled: fixed or dual-axis solar PV, wind turbines, battery energy storage, diesel-generator fleets, bidirectional conversion, and optional utility-grid import/export.
- Outputs: lowest-NPC feasible sizing candidates within the sampled search, complete hourly dispatch, generator starts and wet stacking, NPC, LCOE, payback, IRR, renewable fraction, deterministic outage survival, stochastic component-failure resilience, recovery and energy-not-served distributions, four NPS resilience scores, a versioned JSON run package, and hourly CSV.
- Public API: `POST https://www.microgridmodeler.com/api/v1/simulate`; aggregate technical, economic, and requested resilience results by default, optional year-one hourly series; open beta with no SLA.
- Optimization claim: exhaustive over the declared coarse candidate grid, followed by four-seed joint DER/dispatch-policy refinement and optional adverse-scenario robust selection. The guarantee applies to explicitly evaluated candidates, not the unsampled continuous design space.
- Cost model: explicit real-dollar annual cash flows include equipment/BOS, development, contingency, O&M escalation, insurance/asset management, fuel, carbon, replacements with optional cost learning, ITC, salvage, decommissioning, and a matched dispatch baseline.
- Known boundary: this is planning-grade chronological energy and resilience analysis, not protection coordination, transient stability, distribution power flow, or a controller hardware-in-the-loop certification environment.

## Optional

- [Methodology & assumptions](https://www.microgridmodeler.com/methodology): Read this to understand the modeling boundaries and data provenance before citing numbers.