Comparison · checked 2026-09-25

Seven tools. Five questions. Every row dated.

Mayfield’s 2022 questions still hold: price, modeling power, tariffs and incentives, and ease of use. This comparison adds a fifth: can another analyst reproduce and challenge the decision?

Open the Modeler Read the methodology

Bottom line. No tool here is best at everything. MicrogridModeler is a browser-based, single-bus planning tool; SAM, REopt, DER-VET, HOMER, Xendee and NPS Microgrid Planner each go further in the scopes listed below.

MicrogridModeler

Price

$0 during early access, no account (no paid plans as of 2026-09-25)

MicrogridModeler

What one export carries

The load series, resource provenance, the 8,760-hour energy balance, the cash flow and an input fingerprint.

MicrogridModeler

Engine

Version 3.0.0. Historical NSRDB or uploaded weather years drive fixed-design risk and a feasible-year/P90-cost gate in the sizing search; URDB tariffs import with tiers and demand schedules.

Article criteria, product by product

Buyer outcomes, not a checkmark count. Prices are public U.S. list prices; the last column gives the date each row was checked against the vendor’s own pages.

Seven-product microgrid modeling software comparison across the Mayfield article criteria, with the date each row was checked
Product	Price / access	Modeling power	Tariffs / incentives	Ease of use	Reporting / audit	Best fit	Checked
MicrogridModeler	$0 during early access, no account (no paid plans as of 2026-09-25)	PV, wind, battery, diesel, grid, four EMS controls, lifecycle economics, hard-constraint Pareto sizing, component disturbance/repair, resilience, and exact historical weather-year probability/P90-cost sizing.	Simple TOU/demand builder, location-seeded NREL average rates, and full OpenEI URDB JSON import for tiered energy, monthly/TOU demand, fixed/minimum charges, and export rules.	No install or account; guided and expert workflows; PVWatts TMY plus 10-year historical NSRDB fetch; multi-file weather/load import; live guardrails.	Print/PDF, selected-window and full hourly CSV, cash flow, complete JSON run package, evidence grade, and content fingerprint.	Single-bus feasibility, sizing and commercial quotes that another analyst can reproduce from the export.	2026-09-25
SAM (NLR, formerly NREL)	Free desktop software; version 2026.7.3.	Deep renewable performance and financial models, detailed storage, parametric/statistical analysis, scripting, and measured multi-year PV uncertainty.	Retail-rate and bill modeling are supported; rate and incentive inputs require careful project setup.	Mature desktop UI on Windows, macOS, and Linux; broad input surface and specialist workflows.	Detailed plots, tables, cash flows, Excel export, and scripting outputs.	Technology-specific renewable performance, project finance and multi-year solar uncertainty workflows.	2026-09-25
REopt (NLR, formerly NREL)	Free web tool, API and open-source model.	MILP capacity and dispatch optimization for electric and thermal DERs, lifecycle cost, emissions, clean-energy goals, and resilience.	Automatically queries the Utility Rate Database and supports detailed tariff economics.	Guided public web workflow with strong defaults, tutorials, and API access.	Readable scenario results, charts, downloads, and API output; the lab cautions against using results alone for investment decisions.	Formal facility/campus DER optimization using NLR data and resilience objectives.	2026-09-25
EPRI DER-VET	Free, open-source (BSD-3-Clause) desktop/CLI software; v1.3.0 (December 2024).	Storage-centric DER sizing and value stacking across PV, wind, demand response, EV charging, generators, CHP, and microgrids.	Customer bill reduction and market/value-stream inputs; generally more analyst-supplied data than a maintained commercial tariff service.	Desktop GUI plus Python CLI; pre-defined cases help, but advanced valuation remains specialist work.	Design, dispatch, reliability, and financial results with inspectable open-source methods.	Storage/DER valuation, stacked services, and research or regulatory analysis.	2026-09-25
HOMER Pro / Grid	Pro: $1,575, $3,100 or $4,650 per user per year. Grid: $4,200 per user per year on the annual plan ($665/month monthly).	Mature hybrid simulation, optimization, sensitivity, broad components, 1-minute to hourly steps; Grid adds BTM, EV, resilience, and value stacking.	HOMER Grid advertises Genability’s database of 35,000+ C&I tariffs plus a tariff builder and incentive/demand-response data.	Established desktop workflow, component libraries, support, and training; license/module choices add setup overhead.	Rich technical results and instant client-facing proposals in HOMER Grid.	Broad hybrid configuration and sensitivity studies in a mature commercial workflow.	2026-09-25
Xendee DESIGN	Gold: $440 per user per month, billed annually; Platinum: $540 per user per month billed annually (+$110 monthly). Enterprise by contract.	25+ DERs, electric and thermal domains, hydrogen, mobility, multi-node optimization, power flow, one-lines, cable/transformer sizing, and 15-minute analysis.	Built-in utility/tariff/incentive data, NEM 3.0 access, and paid/custom tariff modeling support.	Cloud team platform spanning discovery, proposals, design, and operations, with onboarding and modeling services.	Unlimited detailed reports, branded/white-label options, sharing, API, and expert-produced PowerPoint reporting.	Enterprise multi-site and multi-energy programs that need network design, collaboration, proposals, and operations.	2026-09-25
NPS Microgrid Planner	Free and open source (MIT-style license excluding its authentication code). Hosted by NPS with a login, or self-hosted. Version 4.0, September 2026.	Hourly dispatch with selectable energy-management strategies and component disturbance/repair resilience measures; v4.0 adds a lifecycle cost analysis over one representative dispatch year.	v4.0 adds energy-rate tables: time-of-use buy, sell and demand rates by season. Its README lists ratchets, tiers, fixed charges and minimum bills as not modeled.	Web application with separate component, microgrid, load and analysis pages; v4.0 requires a login (CAC supported) and ships a containerized self-hosted setup.	Compact results with interactive, exportable charts; open code and a peer-reviewed paper (INFORMS Journal on Computing, 2025). NPS states v4.0 meets UFC 3-550-04 Appendix B-2.	Defense and research resilience studies where the team can host and extend open code.	2026-09-25

Feature availability can depend on plan, module, geography, data license, and implementation services. Verify procurement terms and run a controlled bake-off with identical inputs before selecting software.

Who actually leads each hard category?

A useful comparison preserves the incumbent’s strongest evidence—even when it is inconvenient.

No install, no account

MicrogridModeler

The Quote Studio and the Modeler run in the browser without an account and export the input series, provenance, hourly balance, cash flow and an input fingerprint.

Solar uncertainty and project finance

SAM

MicrogridModeler ingests historical years and sizes to a probability gate, but SAM has the deeper loss-uncertainty and project-finance workflow.

Open formal optimization

REopt

REopt’s published MILP and automatic URDB integration remain the stronger formal facility-DER reference. MicrogridModeler can submit a REopt case and map the result.

Storage value stacking

DER-VET

DER-VET remains a strong open platform when market services and storage valuation—not only site adequacy—drive the decision.

Hybrid breadth and sensitivity

HOMER

HOMER’s component breadth, subhourly simulation, mature sensitivity workflow, training, and installed user base remain material strengths.

Enterprise breadth

Xendee

Power flow, one-lines, thermal and hydrogen systems, multi-node design, mobility, collaboration, proposals, and operations are outside today’s MicrogridModeler boundary.

Known gaps · as of 2026-09-25

Where MicrogridModeler stops today.

Priority	Why it changes the buying decision	Status
Historical multi-year resource ingestion	Exact 8,760-hour NSRDB or user years drive feasibility and P90-cost sizing. Project finance still needs a full loss-uncertainty study and independent engineering review.	Shipped · planning grade
Maintained tariff discovery	URDB import now preserves complex rate physics; automatic rate selection/versioning is still easier in REopt, HOMER Grid, and Xendee.	Partial
Subhourly dispatch	Required when 15-minute peaks, short storage events, or controls materially change economics and adequacy.	Not started
Multi-node power flow and one-lines	Required to compete with Xendee beyond single-bus planning and into electrical network design.	Not started
Thermal, hydrogen, flexible EV, and CHP domains	Required for campus decarbonization and sector-coupled DER portfolios.	Not started
Accounts and shared cloud projects	Needed for multi-person sales, review and approval workflows. Today projects travel as files and share links.	Not started

Sources and review record

Primary vendor and laboratory documentation was used wherever available. No paid-access competitor test is implied.

Product and company names on this site, such as HOMER, REopt, PVWatts, Xendee and Energy Toolbase, may be trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify those products and companies. MicrogridModeler is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by them, or by DOE or NLR (formerly NREL), unless a page says otherwise.