A Comparison of Microgrids Design Tools: an Area of Development for New Decision Support Systems

Homer (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources) Pro is a robust energy modeling software developed to support the design and optimization of microgrids and distributed energy systems. Xendee is another commercial concurrent software, available in the cloud. There are many others microgrids' design tools, offering slightly different functionalities, such as REOPT, DERCAM (Xendee's forerunner), Microgrid Planner. They work to help microgrids designers with feasibility studies. Designs (in Homer) and projects (in Xendee) are the way to run different configurations and get results, that are comparable, especially in terms of economic indicators. However, despite their great capabilities, they lack a flexible tool to help the comparison in terms of operational flexibility and compound indicators, supporting resilience analysis. This paper shows how the results of a feasibility study, carried out using the above-mentioned software, can be integrated, or simplified and replaced by a novel decision support tool, providing the designer several degrees of freedom, thus making a comparative choice when resilience is the focus.