XENDEE Corporation and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have partnered to build a design platform for Net-Zero Carbon Microgrids. The platform will consider a wide variety of distributed energy and sustainable technologies, including solar photovoltaic, battery storage, electric vehicle fast-charging stations, hydrokinetic power, hydro-storage, traditional combined heat and power systems, and small nuclear reactors to optimize Microgrid designs and minimize environmental impacts while also capturing the best return on investment.
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Essential to the development of the program was also a strong emphasis on greenhouse gas reductions, since as it stands, traditional generators running on fossil fuels still make up the backbone of most Microgrid implementations.
The Net-Zero Carbon platform is based on XENDEE’s Microgrid design and operation software, which will act as the optimization engine, power flow simulation tool, and cloud-based Microgrid operator. XENDEE calculates the optimal time to make investment decisions, accounts for year over year changes in the financial and technological environment and can simulate the operation of the Microgrid at peak efficiency to meet organizational goals and resiliency requirements.
“Net-Zero Carbon Microgrids offer an exceptional solution to large public and private energy consumers, lifting the burden of centralized distribution, ensuring long-term energy security, and specifically addressing greenhouse gases as a priority parameter for technical design,” said Michael Stadler, CTO of XENDEE.
As part of INL’s pre-project research, 25 functional requirements were identified as necessary for developing a Net Zero Carbon Microgrid Planning and Design Tool.
INL performed extensive pre-procurement market research and XENDEE was identified as the only solution with a comprehensive platform that met all the 25 requirements. XENDEE was also the only platform that offered integrated modeling for greenhouse gas emissions, which was vital to addressing carbon emissions as an essential part of the design process.
“XENDEE offered a single comprehensive tool for Microgrid design and modeling that efficiently optimizes design and investment, power flow simulations, and organizational goals to meet resiliency requirements and cost efficiency,” said Tim McJunkin, Ph.D., Distinguished Researcher in Power and Energy Systems. “Additionally, with modeling considerations for greenhouse gas emissions and a variety of energy generation technologies, we can harness a variety of solutions to offer sustainability without sacrificing resiliency and energy security. This is why we selected XENDEE, and now we are partnering with XENDEE.”
As part of this partnership, XENDEE will also be enhancing its software to model small modular nuclear reactors.
“With the ever-increasing demands on regional utilities, aging infrastructure, and rising fuel costs, Microgrids have a unique opportunity to meet the challenges of climate change and contribute to a carbon-free power delivery system without overburdening energy markets and consumers,” said Ning Kang, Ph.D., Department Manager of Power and Energy Systems at INL. “The addition of small nuclear reactor technology can offer a unique zero-carbon solution while also meeting the load requirements of large industrial facilities and military bases.”