Utility and Grid Operator Electric Power System Resources

Integrated distribution planning is a framework for meeting electric power distribution system affordability and reliability objectives. NLR assists utilities in managing complex distribution planning data and workflows, establishing load forecasts and scenarios, quantifying the reliability threat landscape, and optimizing utility investment. NLR's work on distribution planning spans establishing frameworks for planning, workflows, modeling, scenario development, and developing supporting datasets.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The integrated distribution planning presentation was given by Vincent Westfallen and Lawryn Kiboma. View the Integrated Distribution Planning recording on YouTube and access the Integrated Distribution Planning slides.

Publications and Resources

Major Drivers of Long-Term Distribution Transformer Demand, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Integrated Distribution System Planning, U.S. Department of Energy Website

Distribution Transformer Demand: Understanding Demand Segmentation, Drivers, and Management Through 2050, NLR Fact Sheet (2024)

Duke Energy’s Integrated System and Operations Planning: A Comparative Analysis of Integrated Planning Practices, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Technical Report (2023)

Distribution Capacity Expansion Planning: Current Practice, Opportunities, and Decision Support, NLR Technical Report (2022)

The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100): Chapter 7. Distribution System Analysis, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Integrated Models for Electrical Distribution Network Planning and District-Scale Building Energy Use, IEEE Madrid PowerTech (2021)

Electric Distribution System Planning With DERs-High-Level Assessment of Tools and Methods, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Technical Report (2020)

Integrated Distribution System and Urban District Planning With High Renewable Penetrations, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment (2019)

Simulation Tools

NLR's work on integrated distribution planning leverages multiple tools and datasets across advanced load forecasting, distributed energy resource integration, weather-driven resilience, and customer rate and tariff design, including specific distribution modeling and planning tools.

Distribution Planning Suite includes datasets and software tools that cover data analytics, scenario development, simulation engines, and applications for distribution planning and analysis.

Python OpenDSS Interface and Python OpenDSS Wrapper for Power-Flow Analysis (PyDSS) enables advanced power-flow analytics and programming.

Capacity Expansion Decision Support for Distribution Networks (CADET) provides a modeling framework for distribution grid planners to produce consistent, defendable, and repeatable means to compare long-term distribution investment strategies.

URBANopt^TM is an advanced analytics platform for high-performance buildings and energy systems within one geographically cohesive area within a city (e.g., a city block or district).

North American Energy Resilience Model To Strengthen Power System Planning (NAERM) provides a comprehensive modeling system for U.S. energy and communications infrastructure for use by energy system planners, operators, and government stakeholders. NAERM supports electricity reliability by modeling the associated resiliency of numerous U.S. energy sources.

Datasets

Distribution Unit Cost Database contains unit cost information for different components that may be used to integrate distributed energy resources onto distribution systems.

Synthetic Models for Advanced, Realistic Testing: Distribution Systems and Scenarios (SMART-DS) offers high-quality, "realistic but not real" distribution network models and advanced tools to generate scenarios on those models.

Distribution Grid Kitchen, developed by NLR and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is a set of statistical hosting capacity models and representative, geospatially relevant models for substations, feeders, and low-voltage networks.

Load forecasting is increasingly challenging due to significant uncertainty about new loads and technologies that fundamentally change typical customer load characteristics. NLR provides energy and demand forecast resources for utilities, technology adoption estimates, and load profile and shape analysis for multiple end uses and load sectors.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The advanced load forecasting presentation was given by Michael Blonsky. View the advanced load forecasting recording on YouTube and access the advanced load forecasting slides.

Publications and Resources

Highly Resolved Reference Projections of Building Energy Use for the Contiguous United States: Building Sector Energy Baselines, Projection Methods, and Results, NLR Technical Report (2025)

Solar, Wind, and Load Forecasting Dataset for Midcontinent System Operator, New York System Operator, and Southwest Power Pool Balancing Areas, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Solar PV, Wind Generation, and Load Forecasting Dataset for Electric Reliability Council of Texas 2018: Performance-Based Energy Resource Feedback, Optimization, and Risk Management, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Best Practices in Electricity Load Modeling and Forecasting for Long-Term Power System Planning, NLR Technical Report (2023)

End-Use Load Profiles for the U.S. Building Stock Methodology and Results of Model Calibration, Validation, and Uncertainty Quantification, U.S. Department of Energy Technical Report (2022)

Electrification Futures Study: Operational Analysis of U.S. Power Systems With Increased Electrification and Demand-Side Flexibility, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100): Chapter 3. Electricity Demand Projections, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Electrification Futures Study: Methodological Approaches for Assessing Long-Term Power System Impacts of End-Use Electrification, NLR Technical Report (2020)

Simulation Tools

ComStock and ResStock analysis tools help states, municipalities, utilities, and manufacturers identify which commercial and residential building stock improvements, respectively, save the most energy and money.

Demand-side grid (dsgrid) toolkit harnesses decades of sector-specific energy modeling expertise to understand current and future U.S. electricity load for power systems analyses.

Electric Vehicle Infrastructure—Projection (EVI-Pro) tool estimates how much EV charging infrastructure is needed in a designated area to meet a given demand.

Transportation Energy & Mobility Pathway Options (TEMPO™) model is used to explore pathway options for producing long-term scenarios that reach strategic transportation-energy-environment objectives and is an all-inclusive transportation demand model that covers the entire United States.

Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGenTM) model simulates customer adoption of distributed energy resources for residential, commercial, and industrial entities in the United States or other countries through 2050.

Scout is a software program for estimating the national energy and CO₂ impacts of building energy efficiency measures.

Object-oriented Controllable High-resolution Residential Energy (OCHRE™) model helps assess opportunities for demand flexibility for residential buildings with emerging technologies.

The Building Energy Optimization Tool provides capabilities to evaluate residential building designs and identify cost-optimal efficiency packages at various levels of whole-house energy savings along the path to zero net energy.

EnergyPlus simulates whole building energy consumption and water use.

Datasets

Electrification Futures Study Load Profiles and Flexible Load Profiles datasets include hourly profiles for flexible load developed for the Electrification Futures Study, with scenarios configured around demand flexibility, rate of electrification, and technology advancement.

NLR and its research partners have developed a database of end-use load profiles representing all major end uses, building types, and climate regions in the U.S. commercial and residential building stock. In addition, NLR's ComStock and ResStock analysis tools include multiple datasets on load profiles under different energy efficiency scenarios.

2030 National Charging Network Study and associated datasets capture national and state electric vehicle supply equipment port count requirements for 2025 and 2030 across multiple analysis scenarios.

Distributed energy resources (DERs) affect planning and operation of distribution systems, and introduce challenges around voltage control, bidirectional power flows, system protection, net-load disaggregation, and system stability. Utilities and other involved stakeholders face multifaceted challenges associated with DER integration including, but not limited to, interconnection standards and grid codes; interoperability and cybersecurity; equipment testing and certification; interconnection procedures; and advanced forecasting, planning, and DER management.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The DER integration presentation was given by Killian McKenna. View the DER integration recording on YouTube and access the DER integration slides.

Publications and Resources

IEEE 1547-2018 Resources features educational materials and technical reports on the standard for the interconnection and interoperability of DERs, including more than 40 reports covering primers, design, implementation, and specific technical reports on protection, anti-islanding, reactive power control, and power quality. Several reports are authored by key contributors to the 1547-2018 standard.

Planning Roadmap for DER Integration in India: Industry Best Practices and Resource Guide, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Distributed Wind Monitoring Best Practices, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Technical Potential and Meaningful Benefits of Community Solar in the United States, NREL Technical Report (2024)

Community Solar Program Design Considerations and Modeling Inputs, NLR Technical Report (2024) 

Automating the Solar Interconnection Technical Evaluation Process: PREconfiguring and Controlling Inverter SEt-Points (PRECISE), IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (2023)

Powered by PRECISE, NLR Presentation (2024)

Data Validation for Hosting Capacity Analyses, NLR Technical Report (2022)

REopt for Resilient Buildings: Leveraging Energy Efficiency and Distributed Energy Resources for Resilience Solutions, NLR Presentation (2022)

Distributed Wind Energy Futures Study, NLR Technical Report (2022)

Distributed Wind Considerations From the IEEE 1547-2018 Revision, NLR Technical Report (2021)

An Overview of Issues Related to IEEE Std 1547-2018 Requirements Regarding Voltage and Reactive Power Control, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Considerations for Distributed Energy Resource Integration in Puerto Rico: DOE Multi-Lab Grid Modeling Support for Puerto Rico; Analytical Support for Interconnection and IEEE Std 1547-2018, NLR Technical Report (2021)

EV Hosting Capacity Analysis on Distribution Grids, IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (2021)

An Overview of Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection: Current Practices and Emerging Solutions, NLR Technical Report (2019)

Highlights of IEEE Standard 1547-2018, NLR Presentation (2019)

Simulation Tools

System Advisor Model™ (SAM™) is a free desktop application for techno-economic analysis of energy technologies. It is used by project managers and engineers, policy analysts, technology developers, and researchers to investigate questions about the technical, economic, and financial feasibility of energy projects.

PRECISE is an automated DER interconnection evaluation tool that quickly assesses grid impacts and leverages smart inverter functionality. PRECISE was developed in partnership with Sacramento Municipal Utility District and is an R&D 100 Award-winning technology that combines detailed distribution system modeling with analyses of grid conditions to provide custom solutions tailored to fit each utility’s unique local needs. 

REopt allows users to evaluate the economic viability of DERs for a building, campus, or microgrid, in addition to optimal sizing and dispatch, and resilience analysis.

Distribution Integration Solution Cost Options (DISCO) is a Python-based NLR software tool for conducting scalable, repeatable distribution analyses, with a focus on hosting capacity and DER integration. 

PVWatts^® Calculator estimates the energy production of grid-connected PV energy systems throughout the world. It allows homeowners, small building owners, installers and manufacturers to easily develop estimates of the performance of potential PV installations.

Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model is a detailed spatio-temporal modeling assessment tool that empowers users to calculate renewable energy capacity, generation, and cost based on geospatial intersection with grid infrastructure and land-use characteristics. reV has been used extensively to assess the resource potential of DERs.

Datasets

Wind Resource Database is a collection of modeled wind resource estimates for the United States and various countries around the globe of various lengths up to 20 years.

National Solar Radiation Database is a serially complete collection of hourly and half-hourly values of meteorological data and the three most common measurements of solar radiation: global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal irradiance. 

Annual Technology Baseline provides a consistent set of technology cost and performance data for energy analysis. This includes data on capital expenditures, operation and maintenance expenditures, capacity factors, and levelized cost of energy for DER technologies.

Inverter-based resources (IBRs) can affect the dynamics and operating characteristics of power systems. As such, new model tools, control strategies, and planning procedures are needed to ensure a reliable and stable grid.

NLR's extensive research on IBRs—within its grid modernization portfolio—includes work on grid standards and codes and grid-forming inverters, including co-leading the Universal Interoperability for Grid-forming Inverters consortium. NLR's testing facilities include the Energy Systems Integration Facility and the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems platform, which can be used to enhance the reliability and performance of IBR grid integration.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The IBR presentation was given by Andy Hoke. View the IBR recording on YouTube and access the IBR slides.

Publications and Resources

A Twin Circuit Theory-Based Framework for Oscillation Event Analysis in Inverter-Dominated Power Systems With Case Study for Kaua ‘i System, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers (2025)

Introduction to Grid Forming Inverters: A Key to Transforming Our Power Grid, NLR Presentation (2024)

A Path to 100 Percent Renewable Energy: Grid-Forming Inverters Will Give Us the Grid We Need Now, IEEE Spectrum (2024)

Benefits and Recommendations for Using Classic Protection Functions in Transmission Lines Interfacing IBRs Compliant to IEEE 2800, 2024 CIGRE Grid of the Future Symposium (2024)

Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters Specifications for Grid-Forming Inverter-Based Resources—Version 2, Universal Interoperability for Grid-Forming Inverters Consortium website (2024)

Analysis of November 21, 2021, Kaua ‘i Island Power System 18–20 Hz Oscillations, arXiv (2023)

Paradigm Shift: Black Start From Inverter-Based Resources-IBR-Driven Power System Black Start, NLR Presentation (2022)

Stability and Control of Power Systems With High Penetrations of Inverter-Based Resources: An Accessible Review of Current Knowledge and Open Questions, Solar Energy 210 (2020)

Research Roadmap on Grid-Forming Inverters, NLR Technical Report (2020)

In an increasingly complex and dynamic grid, operations struggle to adapt to new challenges such as bidirectional power flow, operational flexibility, resilience enhancement with repair crew and resource coordination, variable distributed energy, high-density dynamic loads from EVs, and the involvement of nonutility stakeholders. Advanced grid control solutions such as advanced distribution management systems, distributed energy resource management systems, DER aggregators, and virtual power plants can leverage both front-of-the-meter and behind-the-meter assets including those in the commercial and residential buildings support efficient grid management.

NLR has extended testing facilities for microgrids, DER management systems, virtual power plants, and real-time distributed control capabilities and performance, across its Energy Systems Integration Facility and Advanced Research for Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) platform.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The microgrids, virtual power plants, and DER management systems presentation was given by Harsha Vardhana Padullaparti and Kumaraguru Prabakar. View the microgrids, virtual power plants, and distributed energy resources management systems recording on YouTube and access the microgrids, virtual power plants, and distributed energy resources management systems slide deck one and two.

Publications and Resources

Flexible Operation of Microgrids Through Operator-Configurable Microgrid Controllers, IEEE Power and Energy Society Grid Edge Technologies Conference and Exposition (2025)

Interoperable, Inverter-Based Distributed Energy Resources Enable 100% Renewable and Resilient Utility Microgrids, IEEE Power and Energy Society Grid Edge Technologies Conference and Exposition (2025)

Validation of Interconnection and Interoperability of Grid-Forming Inverters Sourced by Hydrogen Technologies in View of 100% Renewable Microgrids, NLR Presentation (2024)

A Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation of Service Restoration With Networked Microgrids, IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (2024)

Advanced Distribution Management Systems Test Bed Use Case 5: Federated Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems for High PV Systems, NLR Presentation (2024)

Peak Demand Management and Voltage Regulation Using Coordinated Virtual Power Plant Controls, IEEE Access 11 (2023)

Power-Hardware-in-the-Loop Interfaces for Inverter-Based Microgrid Experiments Including Transitions, IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (2023)

Federated Architecture for Secure and Transactive Distributed Energy Resource Management Solutions, NLR Technical Report (2022)

Peak Load Management in Distribution Systems Using Legacy Utility Equipment and Distributed Energy Resources, IEEE Green Technologies Conference (2021)

Testing Facilities and Simulation Tools

REopt evaluates how local energy generation and storage can be incorporated alongside conventional generation in grid-connected or off-grid microgrids to meet critical loads at the lowest life cycle cost.

Hybrid Optimization and Performance Platform (HOPP) is a software tool (part of the NLR suite of systems engineering tools) that enables detailed analysis and optimization of hybrid power plants down to the component level.

Alfalfa Virtual Building Service is a web service designed to simulate building energy models. It provides interactive real time simulation engines, for one to thousands of buildings, supporting control and dispatch of ComStock, ResStock and other user supplied models.

NLR's Flexible Load Aggregator and Risk Estimator (FLARE) tool gives DER aggregators a way to manage their fleet of flexible load resources and estimate their flexible capacity.

OptGrid autonomously optimizes power flow between devices, helping new energy resources work for the grid and the grid work for energy resources.

Distribution system operators manage and operate the medium- and low-voltage electrical network for an electrical utility. These operators manage the delivery of energy to the load, monitor the energy flow, control and coordinate field equipment, and ensure reliability and protection. Advanced distribution management systems (ADMS) effectively modernize the grid and provide reliability, efficiency, resilience, and safety.

Learn more about ADMS, ADMS test beds, microgrids, and grid simulation and power hardware-in-the-loop.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The ADMS presentation was given by Ismael Mendoza. View the ADMS recording on YouTube and access the ADMS slides.

Publications and Resources

NREL's Advanced Distribution Management System Test Bed, NLR Presentation (2023)

ADMS and DER Coordinated Capability Demonstrations to Assist Utilities to Increase Resilience and Reliability, NLR Presentation (2022)

Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration in the Presence of DERs ADMS Test Bed Use Case, NLR Presentation (2022

ADMS Test Bed Updates, NLR Presentation (2021)

Defining a Use Case for the ADMS Test Bed: Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration With Distributed Energy Resources, IEEE Power and Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (2021)

Using an Advanced Distribution Management System Test Bed to Evaluate the Impact of Model Quality on Volt/Volt-Ampere Reactive Optimization, IEEE Power and Energy Society Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition (2020)

Testbeds and Simulation Tools

Advanced Distribution Management System Test Bed helps users evaluate existing and future ADMS, distributed energy resource management systems, and other utility management system applications in a realistic laboratory environment.

GridAPPS-D is an open-source platform that accelerates development and deployment of portable applications for advanced distribution management and operations. NLR is supporting the effort led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS) is an open-source cyber-physical-energy cosimulation framework for energy systems, with a strong tie to the electric power system.

Cybersecurity risks are critical concerns given the increased connectivity and complexity of the grid. The interconnected nature of the power grid and the extensive communications among devices, DERs, and their control solutions creates a complex ecosystem that could be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Protecting sensitive data, maintaining system integrity, and preventing disruptions to power delivery require robust cybersecurity measures at every level to ensure the reliability and security of grid operations.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The cybersecurity concerns of distributed resources presentation was given by Nik Urlaub. View the cybersecurity concerns of distributed resources recording on YouTube and access the cybersecurity concerns of distributed resources slides.

Publications and Resources

Cybersecurity Guidance for Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems, NLR Presentation (2023)

Supply Chain Cybersecurity Recommendations for Solar Photovoltaics, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Gap Analysis of Supply Chain Cybersecurity for Distributed Energy Resources, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Cybersecurity in Photovoltaic Plant Operations, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Cybersecurity Certification Recommendations for Interconnected Grid Edge Devices and Inverter-Based Resources, NLR Technical Report (2021)

Certification Procedures for Data and Communications Security of Distributed Energy Resources, NLR Technical Report (2019)

Simulation Tool

The Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) Cyber Range allows researchers and partners to study energy systems’ interaction with and dependence on digital communication devices and networks.

Rates and tariffs/customer participation for grid-edge resources need to reflect the evolving landscape of electricity consumption and generation. Utilities face the challenge of designing rate structures that incorporate DERs, EVs, and energy efficiency measures while ensuring cost recovery and affordable pricing for customers.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The customer rate and tariff design presentation was given by Thomas Bowen and Christina Simeone. View the customer rate and tariff design recording on YouTube and access the customer rate and tariff design slides.

Publications and Resources

Research Needs and New Capabilities for Retail Electricity Rate Analysis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Technical Report (2025)

The Bill Alignment Test: Identifying Trade-Offs of Residential Electricity Rate Design Options, Utilities Policy Preprint (2023)

LA100 Equity Strategies Chapter 5: Low-Income Energy Bill Equity and Affordability, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Pass-Through in Residential Retail Electricity Competition: Evidence From Pennsylvania, Utilities Policy (2023)

Simulation Tool and Datasets

Customer Affordability, Incentives, and Rates Optimization (CAIRO) model estimates the impact of utility rate and program design decisions on customers using detailed customer load data and forecasted power system scenarios.

Cambium datasets contain modeled hourly data for a range of possible futures of the U.S. electricity sector through 2050, with metrics designed to be useful for forward-looking analysis and decision support.

The NLR Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides a consistent set of technology cost and performance data for energy analysis. The ATB electricity and transportation datasets are freely available.

The Utility Rate Database (URDB) is a free storehouse of rate structure information from utilities in the United States. The URDB includes rates for utilities based on the authoritative list of U.S. utility companies maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

Weather-driven resilience involves the analysis of both historical weather data and forecasts to identify vulnerable infrastructure, optimize investments in grid hardening, and develop proactive strategies to mitigate future risks. By integrating weather-driven insights, utilities can ensure reliable service and improve recovery efforts during natural disasters. However, utilities often struggle to quantify the benefits or improvements in resilience from these grid investments, making it difficult to justify costs and prioritize initiatives effectively.

Learn more about energy system resilience.

Summer 2025 Webinar

View the weather-driven resilience recording on YouTube and access the weather-driven resilience slides.

Publications and Resources

Current Practices in Distribution Utility Resilience Planning for Wildfires, U.S. Department of Energy, Grid Deployment Office Technical Report (2024)

Current Practices in Distribution Utility Resilience Planning for Winter Storms, U.S. Department of Energy, Grid Deployment Office Technical Report (2024)

Current Practices in Distribution Utility Resilience Planning for Hurricanes and Non-Winter Storms, U.S. Department of Energy, Grid Deployment Office Technical Report (2024)

Community Resilience Options: A Menu For Enhancing Local Energy Resilience, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Applications of Measuring and Valuing Resilience in Energy Systems, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Shedding Light on the Economic Costs of Long-Duration Power Outages, Energy Research & Social Science Preprint (2023)

Measuring and Valuing Resilience: A Literature Review For the Power Sector, NLR Technical Report (2023)

Enhancing Resilience in Buildings Through Energy Efficiency, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Technical Report (2023)

Restoring Critical Loads in Resilient Distribution Systems Using a Curriculum Learned Controller, IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting (2021)

Integrating the Value of Electricity Resilience in Energy Planning and Operations Decisions, IEEE Systems Journal (2020)

Adapting Existing Energy Planning, Simulation, and Operational Models for Resilience Analysis, NLR Technical Report (2020)

Energy Resilience Assessment Methodology, NLR Technical Report (2019)

Resilience Roadmap: A Collaborative Approach to Multi-Jurisdictional Resilience Planning, NLR Technical Report (2019)

Simulation Tools

DOE's North American Energy Resilience Model to Strengthen Power System Planning (NAERM) advances existing capabilities to model, simulate, and assess the behavior of electric power systems as well as its associated dependencies on natural gas, telecommunications, and other critical infrastructures for evaluating energy resilience.

Energy Resilience Analysis for Distribution Systems (ERAD) is a free, open-source Python toolkit on GitHub for computing energy resilience measures in the face of hazards such as earthquakes and flooding. It uses graph database to store data and perform computation at the household level for a variety of critical services that are connected by power distribution network.

REopt evaluates how new energy generation and storage can be incorporated alongside conventional generation in grid-connected or off-grid microgrids to meet critical loads at the lowest life cycle cost.

The Customer Damage Function (CDF) Calculator is a resource for facility owners and resilience planners to understand the costs of an electric grid outage at their site. The calculator provides a process to elicit facility outage vulnerabilities and estimates how costs vary with outage duration.

Transmission and distribution coordination is increasingly necessary as non-negligible amounts of DERs accompany bulk resources or change load shape characteristics. NLR can support utilities in defining and navigating this "handshake" between transmission and distribution.

Learn more about transmission planning, power market design and modeling, and advanced distribution management systems.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The transmission and distribution coordination presentation was given by Bryan Palmintier. View the transmission and distribution coordination recording on YouTube and access the transmission and distribution coordination slides.

Publications and Resources

Building and Validating a Large-Scale Combined Transmission and Distribution Synthetic Electricity System of Texas, International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems (2024)

Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy Study Section 10: Bulk System Power Flow, Dynamic, and Resilience Impact Analysis, NLR Technical Report (2024)

HELICS: A Co-Simulation Framework for Scalable Multi-Domain Modeling and Analysis, IEEE Access (2024)

Keep Your Grid Model to Yourself: Co-Simulation for Multi-Entity Planning and Simulation Without Needing Detailed Model Exchange, Grid of the Future Symposium, CIGRE U.S. National Committee (2024)

LA100 Equity Strategies, NLR Technical Report (2024)

The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study, NLR Technical Report (2021)

2024 Standard Scenarios Report: A U.S. Electricity Sector Outlook, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Simulation Tools and Other Resources

NLR's open-source Sienna modeling framework includes a range of capabilities that allow efficient and reproducible data management, programmatic access, and efficient storage and access to support large-scale modeling, validation, and change management.

GridSight on GitHub can help disseminate results, visualize and interpret large-scale and data-intensive results, and aid transmission expansion planning.

The Hierarchical Engine for Large-scale Infrastructure Co-Simulation (HELICS) is a flexible and scalable open-source co-simulation framework designed to integrated simulators for separate energy and power system domains to simulate regional and interconnection-scale behaviors at unprecedented levels of detail and speed.

PIPES (Pipeline for Integrated Projects in Energy Systems) is a project management, data management, and a workflow management layer for integrated modeling teams.

Understanding resource adequacy requires evaluating the combinations of various resources to meet demand for electricity during all hours of the year. Estimating the resource adequacy contribution of existing thermal and hydropower resources, new energy resources, energy storage, and flexible demand resources is increasingly complex given the interactions between these resources and the impact of increased electrification.

Learn more about transmission planning, power market design and modeling, and advanced distribution management systems.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The resource adequacy presentation was given by Paul Denholm. View the resource adequacy recording on YouTube and access the resource adequacy slides.

Publications and Resources

The National Transmission Planning Study, U.S. Department of Energy Grid Deployment Office Technical Report (2024)

Barriers and Opportunities To Realize the System Value of Interregional Transmission, NLR Presentation (2024)

Interregional Renewable Energy Zones, NLR Technical Report (2024)

Maintaining Reliability While Navigating Unprecedented Uncertainty: A Synthesis of and Guide to Advances in Electric Sector Resource Adequacy, arXiv Preprint (2024)

Wholesale Electricity Market Design to Support Resource Adequacy, International Energy Workshop (2024)

Evolving Metrics for Resource Adequacy Assessment, NLR Presentation (2022)

Quantifying Risk In an Uncertain Future: The Evolution of Resource Adequacy, IEEE Power and Energy Magazine (2021)

Impact of Operating Reserve Rules On Electricity Prices With High Penetrations of Renewable Energy, Energy Policy (2021)

Simulation Tools and Dataset

NLR's ReEDS is an open-source capacity expansion model for the contiguous U.S. electricity system that has been used in several transmission, grid integration, and policy and scenarios studies, and is NLR's flagship capacity planning model for the power sector.

Probabilistic Resource Adequacy Suite (PRAS) is an open-source, research-oriented collection of tools for analyzing the resource adequacy of bulk power systems.

Electricity Markets Investment Suite (EMIS) model is an open-source, agent-based capacity expansion model designed to capture the interactions among wholesale electricity market design, investment decisions, and resource adequacy.

The (reV) model is a detailed spatio-temporal modeling assessment tool that empowers users to calculate energy capacity, generation, and cost based on geospatial intersection with grid infrastructure and land-use characteristics.

Resource Planning Model (RPM) is a capacity expansion model designed for a regional power system, such as a utility service territory, state, or balancing authority.

Cambium datasets contain modeled hourly data for a range of possible futures of the U.S. electricity sector through 2050, with metrics designed to be useful for forward-looking analysis and decision support.

Summer 2025 Webinar

The large load management and grid planning presentation was given by Luke Lavin. View the large load management and grid planning recording on YouTube and access the large load management and grid planning slides.

Explore NLR's work on expanding grid capacity to enable artificial intelligence.