MicrogridCreator is a powerful and user-friendly micro grid simulation and optimization engine. It helps developers and end-users with the planning, design, and optimisation of complex sector-coupled decentralized energy systems. The final version of MicrogridCreator is a cloud-based service that can be run independent of the end-user device.
In 4 steps to the goal:
Use our extensive visualization features for a quick overview of relevant parameters and optimization results.
Getting a quick overview on what really matters saves you a lot of time and effort.
Manage your projects with any device you want at any time you need.
The cloud concept of MicrogridCreator allows you to collaboratively work on your projects whenever you like.
MicrogridCreator helps you to develop a deep understanding of how your optimized energy system operates. You can use MicrogridCreator to
The academic background of MicrogridCreator allows a broad application in very different contexts.
With the transformation of the entire energy system with a growing share of renewable resources, the integrated consideration of all energy sectors is becoming increasingly important. Not only electricity, but also the optimized provision of heat and cooling, plays an important role in an efficient supply system. With MicrogridCreator, you can integrate concepts such as combined heat and power, power-to-heat, and power-to-gas into your system. The synergy effects resulting from an integrated energy approach make a significant contribution to increasing the efficiency of your energy system.
Renewable energy systems based on on-site energy are an important factor in reducing energy costs, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and conserving primary energy resources. With MicrogridCreator you can analyze the potential of renewable energies for your project. Depending on the resources available at the project site, the optimal mix of technologies and their interaction is calculated for you. This allows you to design a cost-effective and environmentally friendly energy system and develop the right strategies to operate this system optimally.
The cost of your energy system is a crucial factor in determining the success of your project. MicrogridCreator allows you to differentiate the costs (and benefits) of building and operating the system. If desired, the effort over the entire life of the entire system or individual parts can be considered. Optimize your system for the costs that are particularly relevant to you, be it investment costs (CAPEX), operating costs (OPEX) or energy production costs (LCoE).
Energy system planners and operators are often faced with the task of having to meet multiple performance indicators that differ in their orientation and purpose. For example, the most efficient option is not necessarily the least expensive one. With MicrogridCreator you can combine different optimization goals and weigh their importance against each other. For example, you can increase the share of renewable energies while at the same time considering the costs as an optimization target. Thus, you ensure that you actually receive the best possible system for your needs.
When planning energy systems, it must be remembered that configuration and operation are mutually dependent. For example, the interplay of certain technologies can have a positive impact on the overall cost of the project, thanks to operational improvements. On the other hand, it does not make sense to consider components with low investment costs unless the physical and economic effects of operation have been investigated. With MicrogridCreator you can optimize technology selection, system configuration and operation during the planning phase already. At the same time, it is possible to optimize the operation of existing systems by adding additional components and examining their impact on the goals you are aiming for.
With the increasing integration of fluctuating renewable energies such as solar and wind power, the share of technologies that can be used to balance the differences between demand and generation is decreasing. Newer concepts foresee that the consumer side can contribute to the necessary balance. With MicrogridCreator you can consider flexible loads and demand side management directly in the planning and operation of your energy system. Several options allow you to examine the effectiveness of load flexibility concepts in terms of system improvement.
The more complex a power system becomes, e.g. through the interplay of different energy sources, generating units and consumer needs, the task of defining appropriate operating strategies becomes more and more challenging. For example, when should a system-integrated storage be optimally charged and discharged? What is the optimal operation pattern for a CHP system under project-specific conditions? MicrogridCreator provides you time-series of the optimized operation of all components. From these data, rules for the best possible system operation can be derived. By changing the framework conditions, you can also investigate the impact of certain factors on the operating optimum.
After logging into MicrogridCreator, you get an overview about the functionalities on your startup screen. Here, you will also learn about the general layout of the screen and how to use it.
Start your project by defining its main characteristics, like the geographical location and some general information.
The system page collects the relevant physical and economic information of your system design. Here you can define the options that you want to have considered in search for the optimum system according to your needs. This relates to physical characteristics like included energy domains (electricity, heat, cooling) and the topology (local nodes), as well as economic parameters that will help to find your optimum cost and revenue structure.
Define the available resources that will support you to make your system work. This relates to physical resources like on-site available renewable energies, especially solar and wind energy, and on-hand external supply. The second type are economic resources, such as income options gained from generation and supply.
With loads you define the structure of the demand side of your decentralized energy system. Loads play an essential role since depending on their characteristics they can cause the need for high technology investments. You can either use typical load profiles for electricity, heating and cooling demand, or apply your own data. With MicrogridCreator, you can specifically exploit the flexibility potential of the demand side to support the balance in your system, to find more attractive operation strategies and reduce the effort of high investments.
In components, you select all the single physical equipment to be considered for your optimum system. This includes technologies for generation, transformation, and distribution, as well as facilities for storing energy. Components are an extremely important building block, since their characteristics will have an essential influence on the system performance and economic viability. Select technologies you want to have considered from the available data base or define your own elements on the fly based on provided templates .
The settings panel provides you the place to set your objectives and some extra parameters relevant for modelling and simulation. Based on your objectives, MicrogridCreator’s optimization engine will determine the optimum configuration of technologies and sizes as well as the operation strategies to be applied.
Display and analyse the results with our comprehensive graphical features including plotting functions for technical and financial figures, and export them straight into your publication. Or download the result data sets for post-processing and further analyses.
The beta version of MicrogridCreator will be available in the second half of 2019. If you like to test it contact us and order a free-of-charge user licence.