Bentley Systems OpenUtilities DER Planning & Design Assessment Solutions

Bentley Systems has announced the availability of OpenUtilities DER Planning & Design Assessment Solutions, the latest of Bentley’s electric utility software offerings that provide decision support and cost-based models and simulations for distributed energy resources (DER) integration. In partnership with Siemens’ Digital Grid business unit, OpenUtilities Solutions for DER empowers electric utilities, electricity suppliers and distribution network operators (DSO) with software applications to analyse, design and evaluate DER interconnection requests through desktop and cloud-based services, while supporting the resilience of network operations.

The solutions generate an electrical digital twin for utilities — a GIS digital twin that enables owner/operators to more efficiently model the grid for decentralised energy without compromising safety.

OpenUtilities DER Optioneering offers a cloud-based decision support initial screening and supplemental screening mechanism to evaluate DER interconnection requests using validation checkpoints and hosting capacity analysis. Utilities can benefit from this fast-tracked interconnection procedure to readily approve DER applications or to defer them to power systems planners to conduct further studies and impact analysis.

In cases where more detailed system impact studies are needed before an interconnection request can be approved, OpenUtilities Analysis gives power system engineers a mechanism to reduce the amount of manual work required at each step of an impact analysis study. This means good forecasting, state-of-the-art models and the ability to efficiently study many power flow scenarios within the network.