Message from the Founder of HOMER Software – December 2022

Dear Readers,

As this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference — COP27 — comes to a close, it is timely that the discussions coincide with the passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the release of HOMER Grid version 1.9. The IRA includes numerous incentives for the grid-connected distributed generation projects, which should spur the development of these projects. UL Solutions HOMER Grid was developed to enable energy professionals to design and evaluate this category of microgrid and now release 1.9 makes it easier to evaluate coast and performance. 

One of the features I am most excited about is a new way to create custom utility tariffs. This makes HOMER Grid useful all over the world — even as location-specific tariffs evolve and may not yet be included in the software’s database of utility tariffs.  

We also feature an article on the use of HOMER Grid to perform feasibility analysis for grid-connected Resilience Hubs — facilities being developed across the nation to provide reliable renewable power and disaster support during power outages and serve as community centers the rest of the year. HOMER Pro has often been used for similar, island-able projects from San Diego to Bangladesh. 

I believe we are on the verge of a truly dramatic change in the energy landscape now that solar PV is the least-cost method of generating electricity and battery storage has become a real option for capacity and reliability.  The next few years promise to be very exciting for the HOMER community.

HOMER software delivers industry-leading system simulations, optimization, sensitivity analysis and best-in-class storage models across three categories of hybrid systems: islanded microgrids, grid-connected distributed generation, and front-of-the-meter utility-scale storage and hybrid systems.

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