Designing or modernizing a microgrid involves assessing local needs and energy resources, evaluating integration requirements, selecting appropriate technologies, and planning for long-term operations. Whether developing a new system or updating an existing one, structured planning is essential to ensure systems are technically sound, financially viable, and aligned with local priorities.
Microgrid Lifecycle Stages
Successful microgrid projects follow a similar roadmap.
- Scoping & Planning: Establish project goals and success criteria, identify critical loads, confirm stakeholders, and define scope. Gather core inputs (load data, site constraints, existing assets) and document key risks and assumptions to guide the next steps.
- Conceptual Design: Define system boundaries and develop one or more conceptual architectures (generation, storage, controls, operating modes). Perform high-level technical and economic screening to narrow options and identify the priority studies/data needed to advance.
- Procurement & Partnering: Translate the concept into procurement-ready requirements and an acquisition approach (e.g., RFP, EPC, IPP/PPA). Align scope with permitting, interconnection needs, funding requirements, and evaluation criteria to support vendor/partner selection.
- Final Design & Engineering: Advance the concept into detailed engineering: electrical and controls architecture, protection, communications, and integration requirements. Incorporate study results and code/permit needs to produce construction-ready plans and specifications.
- Commissioning & Operations: Test and verify performance and safety (including grid-connected and islanded modes), then transition to ongoing operations. Establish O&M procedures, training, monitoring, and performance tracking to support long-term reliability.
Microgrid Design Tools
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has sponsored resources that ease the complexity of microgrid planning and help planners understand the technical and economic feasibility of different designs. With these platforms, users enter their own system data and follow prompts to assess what local energy generation can be implemented in your area.
The following table lists microgrid tools supported by DOE and other organizations, along with the organizations that manage them, their primary users, and the microgrid lifecycle stages (see graphic above) in which each tool is most applicable.
| Microgrid Lifecycle Stages | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tool & Description | Organization | Primary Users | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| REopt helps users select, site, and size behind-the-meter technologies that meet electrical, thermal, and water loads at the lowest life cycle cost. | National Laboratory of the Rockies | Energy planners, facility managers, microgrid developers exploring different energy generation combinations. | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| SAM is a free desktop application that analyzes performance and cost for power projects. | National Laboratory of the Rockies | Project developers, engineers, and policymakers completing feasibility analysis and project design. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| DER-CAM optimizes the portfolio, sizing, placement, and dispatch of local energy resources while co-optimizing value streams such as load shifting and participation in energy markets. | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Energy managers seeking to evaluate energy portfolios that reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance energy security. | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| DER-VET calculates site-specific assessments of energy storage and energy technologies in different configurations. | Electric Power Research Institute | Utilities, developers, and regulators valuing energy storage and generation stacks and designing site-specific deployments and use cases. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| MDT software supports feasibility studies by modeling, analyzing, and optimizing microgrid design. It considers cost, performance, reliability, and security, with a focus on islanded operation during outages. | Sandia National Laboratories | Engineers comparing early microgrid architectures and trade-offs before detailed design. | ✓ | |||||
| MiGRIDS Lite models hourly electricity usage to help users determine which energy source could be a good addition to their microgrid. | Alaska Center for Energy and Power | Small/rural communities, local utilities, and technical assistance providers assessing energy options to integrate with islanded/remote microgrids with a simple, free tool. | ✓ | |||||
| OpenDSS specializes in detailed distribution system simulations, modeling how local energy assets and load use cases impact voltage, reliability, and utility grid performance. | Electric Power Research Institute | Utilities, research labs, and universities for modeling and simulating advanced distribution applications. | ✓ | |||||
| ReNCAT helps site and size microgrids across large distribution systems. | Sandia National Laboratories | Utility/city planners prioritizing feeder-level microgrid siting and sizing for energy security. | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| REPAIR helps utilities and planners design risk-aware grid expansion strategies that co-optimize local energy generation and network upgrades under both normal and extreme event scenarios. | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Utility and city planners evaluating feeder-level or system-wide placement of energy generation and security improvements | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| HOMER originated as a free tool developed at the National Laboratory of the Rockies and is now a commercial platform used for techno-economic analysis of microgrids and hybrid energy systems. | UL Solutions | Microgrid developers, energy planners, and engineers evaluating feasibility and comparing technology configurations for microgrid projects. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Xendee is a commercial microgrid design and optimization platform derived from the Lawerence Berkeley National Labotatory tool DER-CAM, which is still publicly available. | Xendee Corporation | Developers, EPCs, utilities, and engineers performing detailed microgrid siting, sizing, and optimization analyses. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Request Support
Are you interested in a tool but don't know where to begin? The Community Microgrid Assistance Partnership (C-MAP) team can advise on which resources are a best fit for your current project lifecycle stage and can talk you through a tutorial. Submit an application to receive guidance using this brief form.
Application Form
Reading Lists
Explore curated resources from the C-MIX Library that can help you navigate different stages and topics involved in developing a microgrid.
Orient your team with these resources as you begin project scoping and assessing feasibility.
Microgrid Conceptual Design Guidebook (2022). This guide is meant to assist communities—from residents to energy experts to decision makers—in developing a conceptual microgrid design that meets site-specific energy resilience goals.
Community Microgrids: A Guide for Mayors and City Leaders Seeking Clean, Reliable and Locally Controlled Energy (2017). A full introduction to community microgrids written for local governments.
Microgrids for Energy Resilience: A Guide to Conceptual Design and Lessons from Defense Projects (2020). The report offers guidance to critical infrastructure owners and operators on microgrid planning, design, and implementation to enhance resilience and mission assurance.
Voices of Experience: Microgrids for Resiliency (2020). Lessons from utilities and developers on microgrid planning, valuation, and operation.
Microgrid Overview (2024). A fact sheet summarizing microgrid fundamentals, components, and cost considerations for early-stage planning.
Download example templates and checklists to help your team structure microgrid scope, specs, and procurement. Customize the inputs to your owner requirements, utility interconnection, and local codes.
Microgrid System Project Development Checklist (2025). The standard set of tasks and questions for moving from microgrid planning and design through deployment.
Distributed Energy Interconnection Checklist (2021). Step-by-step interconnection tasks and questions for engaging utilities, organized by process stage with required studies, timelines, and documentation.
Battery Energy Storage System Procurement Checklist (2024). Procurement requirements for battery energy storage systems (BESS) including performance specs, safety/standards compliance, warranties, testing/commissioning, cybersecurity/communications, and operations and maintenance.
Microgrid Procurement Checklist Training (2025). A slide deck that assists in operationalizing the steps for microgrid procurement including market research, performance-based specs, evaluation criteria, contracting approaches, and risk and schedule management.
Community Energy Planning Guide with Model RFP and Templates (2022). A practical guide with model RFP language and editable templates to structure scope, deliverables, and proposal evaluation for community energy projects.
Microgrids must meet a minimum standard of compliance to operate. These resources cover interconnection guidelines, protection and coordination, and prerequisites for grid-forming controls and intentional islanding.
A Guide to Updating Interconnection Rules and Incorporating IEEE Std 1547-2018 (2021). Guidance and clarity for local authorities that are adopting, developing, and maintaining rules around interconnections.
Overview of Functional Technical Requirements for Intentional Islands (2022). This document provides an overview of intentional islands, common configurations, and summaries of standards that address some aspects of intentional island implementation and interconnection.
A Primer on the Unintentional Islanding Protection Requirement in IEEE Std 1547-2018 (2022). Gain an understanding of unintentional islanding provisions, test methods, and coordination with protection and relays for interconnections under IEEE Std 1547-2018.
Clause-by-Clause Summary of Requirements in IEEE Std 1547-2018 (2020). A detailed, clause-by-clause digest of IEEE Std 1547-2018 requirements developed to aid implementers and reviewers during interconnection studies and compliance checks.
Aligning Distributed Energy Resources Interconnection Policy and Regulation in New Orleans (2023). Case-based guidance showing how to modernize interconnection policy and regulatory processes to reflect IEEE Std 1547-2018 capabilities and grid needs.
