A Suite of Tools
Microgrid Planner is a peer-reviewed open-source suite of web tools designed to assist with the early stages of microgrid planning. Our technology stack includes Python, MySQL, Flask, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, HTML, CSS, and Docker or Podman for containerization. We are distributing our codebase as open-source software for two reasons: (1) allow others in the scientific community to deploy microgrid planning methods that would otherwise be purely methodological research endeavors, due to a lack of resources to develop the infrastructure required for deployment; and (2) encourage others to contribute to the future development of our suite of tools. We welcome both feedback and collaboration opportunities.
Intro Video
Citing our Platform
To cite this software, please cite both our paper Microgrid Planner: An Open-Source Software Platform published in INFORMS Journal on Computing and its corresponding GitHub repository.
Software Contributors
Microgrid Planner was developed by
- Daniel Reich, 2020-present
- Leah Frye, 2022-2024
with contributions and support from
- Hyatt Moore, proof of concept JavaScript and MySQL contributor, 2021-2022
- Bruce Chiarelli, Docker contributor and deployment support 2021-2023
- Jeff Haferman, Naval Postgraduate School High-Performance Computing support, 2023-present
- Philip McCullick, Docker contributor and deployment support 2023-2025
- Eldor Magat, deployment support 2024-2025
- Taylor Conn, frontend contributor, 2024-2025
- Richard Alves, photovoltaic and wind modeling contributor, 2024-2025
- Captain Dylan Bruns, home page demo video, 2025
- Joseph Martineau, deployment support, 2025-present
- Craig Vershaw, networking support for CAC authentication, 2026-present
Release Notes
Version 4.0 - September 2026
- Cost analysis method
- Energy rate data collection, handling and visualization
- Revised menus
- Techincal documentation for all methods
- Security enhancements
- Automated setup and containerized deployment
- Refactored code with improved organization and efficiency
- Microgrid Planner release meets Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) 3-550-04, 01 March 2024, Appendix B-2 requirements for Microgrid Design Modeling Tools
Version 3.1 - February 2026
- Common Access Card (CAC) authentication
- Consent banner and labels for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
- Configuration options for enabling CAC, and deactivating local login with username and password
Version 3.0 - August 2025
- Resilience analysis method
- Framework for supporting multiple resilience analysis methods
- Disturbance and repair data collection, handling, and visualization
- JavaScript helper methods for waiting for analyses to complete, submitting analyses, and retrieving results
- GUI updates, including improved date/time input handling
- Refactored code with improved organization and efficiency
- Upgraded password authentication from SHA-1 to Argon2
- Updated package installation for compliance with PEP 517/518 standards
Version 2.1 - June 2024
- Integrated PySAM from NREL for photovoltaic modeling
Version 2.0 - April 2024
- Location-based analyses
- Enhanced solar and wind models
- Integration with weather data from the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB), hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
- Slurm job queuing to enable computationally intensive algorithms
- Automated microgrid sizing method
- Simulation history with caching
- Selectable energy management systems
- Improved power load data handling
- Updated GUI with widgets
- Refactored code with improved organization and efficiency
Version 1.1 - September 2023
- Updated GUI
- Refactored code with improved organization and efficiency
Version 1.0 - March 2023
- User accounts with authentication
- User-defined components for diesel generators, photovoltaic systems, wind turbines and battery energy storage systems
- User-defined grids
- Upload and storage of powerload data
- Integration of Version 0.0 simulation methods with user-defined grids and powerload data
- Simulation method for measuring resilience of user-defined grids, using user-defined disturbance probabilities and repair times
- Data farming method for performing sensitivity analysis on grids (offline only)
Version 0.0 - November 2021
- Energy analysis with parameter inputs for one diesel generator, one photovoltaic system, one wind turbine and one battery energy storage system
- Energy analysis with parameter inputs for multiple diesel generators, photovoltaic systems, wind turbines and battery energy storage systems (offline only)
- Distributed energy resource sizing method for one diesel generator, one photovoltaic system and one battery energy storage system (offline only)