Just putting solar PV panels, batteries, chargers and generators out there and saying this is the size you need because this is how much you consume, isn't going to get you what you want. You have to be mindful of how these systems are going to get orchestrated together.
Planning, Designing and Operating Microgrids
Q&A with Adib Nasle, Co-Founder & CEO | Xendee
Tell us about yourself and what was the industry need you saw that motivated you to start Xendee?
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I have spent the better part of my life in computer applications in power and energy. I saw Microgrids as an important part of the future, and concluded that for this technology to be adopted at scale, both engineering and economics needed to come together to achieve superior return on investment.
Traditionally, these two disciplines lived in separate worlds, and I felt that this separation was a major roadblock toward building confidence for investors and driving adoption.
I also felt that the future energy workforce would be distributed as well and that cloud computing and browser based solutions that enabled collaboration will be critical. This is how I met Scott Mitchell (co-founder). I decided to learn web-based enterprise software development at UC San Diego, and Scott was one of my instructors.
While Scott and I worked on the power flow and dynamics of complex DER systems with the help of Roger Dugan at EPRI, I had not found a solution to the techno-economic analysis piece that was critical, and as I asked around in the industry, people kept on pointing me to Dr. Michael Stadler who was heading all of the DER, Microgrid and building-to-grid research at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. That’s how I met Michael (co-founder).
Michael showed me some of the research he was involved in and I knew in my gut that he had figured it out. It was very exciting! I knew instantly that his methodology, approach, and thinking were precisely the missing pieces of what I felt was lacking. He agreed, as did Scott, to start the company and tackle the challenges that we felt needed to be tackled to bring a repeatable, rapid and resilient Microgrid planning and operation solution that would deliver confidence on financial performance for institutional investors and Microgrid owner/operators.
What is the primary challenge that Xendee is solving through your software platform?
Xendee provides a unique AI software platform focused on maximizing financial returns and resilience, while eliminating carbon emissions from on-site energy systems.
We support over 25 different DER technologies and address both electrical and thermal technologies including heat-pumps, linear generators, CHP, SMR, Fuel Cells, and the entire hydrogen value chain.
Our proprietary AI SaaS platform provides time and cost savings to finance, engineering and operating teams.
We achieve this via a single platform approach that delivers reliable techno-economic decision support, identifies best opportunities globally, and generates optimal designs to meet project specific needs. Our forward looking and adaptive AI technology automates Microgrid control to reach objectives defined in the design stage to improve DER profitability during the life-time operation of the system.
The Xendee platform simplifies this process while still providing the highest level of accuracy, speed, and sophistication.
Can you compare and contrast your solutions to how these problems were approached previously?
The status quo has been internal tools, cobbled together commercial software, and spreadsheets, a very “jerry-built” approach to proposing these systems, doing detailed design, and then operations in real-time. And each of these steps is typically disconnected from the other steps.
When you're talking about a single technology, like a solar PV system or maybe a battery by itself, you can probably get away with using a spreadsheet, but once you start building a microgrid with multiple technologies (e.g. Solar PV + Batteries + EV Chargers + Generators), these traditional approaches just don’t cut it.
The disconnect is that using spreadsheets, the results aren't going to match whatever software is being used to do the next step because that piece of software is probably using fundamentally different math, different algorithms, and different methods.
For the detailed design stage, they’re probably using a whole different software stack than what’s used for the feasibility study. Then at the operation stage, a controller comes in with programmed logic that isn't necessarily reflective of what was defined in the design phase. When you're dealing with complex on-site energy systems and have this many disconnects, that's what drives fear and uncertainty into the hearts and minds of investors.
Generators, batteries, solar panels, and EV chargers have all been around for a long time, but when you bring all of these together and then they all have to be orchestrated together (as a system) to achieve a certain outcome, it becomes a very complicated problem. With Xendee you can now accurately model and reliably operate complex DER systems using a single platform that uses the same math, and the same process that has been proven and vetted with the most sophisticated customers and scientists out there. The disconnect is removed with Xendee, as our platform delivers seamless continuity between system design and asset management to reliably maximize financial returns.
What are some key considerations in planning, designing, or operating a microgrid that are often overlooked?
One key consideration is how important it is to size and choose the right technologies as you're trying to solve for an operational strategy.
For example, let's say one person has a Honda Civic, and another person has an identical Honda Civic purchased from the same assembly batch. One drives it like a Formula One driver, and the other drives it like a normal person. They're going to get very different fuel economy, wear and tear on brakes, tires, and other components, leading to very different outcomes and operating expenses over time. They have the same exact machine, but two different brains are driving them very differently, leading to very different results from the same exact system.
Just putting solar PV panels, batteries, chargers and generators out there and saying this is the size you need because this is how much you consume, isn't necessarily going to get you what you want. You have to be mindful of how these systems are going to get orchestrated together and how they're going to all work together as a single unit to achieve a certain objective. That means that the driver behind the wheel, to use that metaphor, is important in the planning and design as well. Knowing this upfront, you may end up choosing a different vehicle, or in the case of a microgrid, a different mix and size of DER technologies.
Xendee is the only integrated provider of AI-based Microgrid design and operation optimization software for superior return on investment.
XENDEE exists to take the pain out of selling, designing and operating complex Distributed Energy Resources (DER) solutions for the commercial and industrial market.
Their products support modeling and control of over 25 DER technologies and 14 distinct value streams (e.g. electric vehicle charging and demand charge reduction), enabling you to quickly screen, design, and operate your DER project of any size. They aim to help you achieve predictable outcomes by combining economic and one-line diagram modeling with future changes in technologies, regulatory constraints, and energy pricing.
Xendee received the 2021 Edison Gold Award for Critical Human Infrastructure and was named a 2024 Top GreenTech company by Time Magazine.
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag
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