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Building-Integrated and Microgrid Value Models

As part of its quest to create a Perfect Power System that will not fail the consumer, the Galvin Electricity Initiative has developed and released two new cost-benefit models for evaluating current and future power system configurations. The Galvin Value Models will help developers, investors, policymakers and others evaluate two types of system architecture that meet the performance standards of a Perfect Power System: Building-Integrated Power Systems (BIPS) and Microgrids. In keeping with the Initiative goal of making its findings broadly available, the models are offered here for public use, free of charge.

The Galvin Value Models transcend traditional cost-based analyses by quantifying consumer and societal value and including these components in the calculation. In doing so, they allow users to show that perfect can be profitable. The Building-Integrated Model focuses on power systems for individual buildings and features technologies for generation, energy storage, communications, and controls. The Microgrid Model focuses on linking building-integrated systems together to take advantage of shared power generation and storage.

Developed by the Galvin team of researchers, the Galvin Value Models package includes a Users Guide, case studies in which the models are used in a variety of development scenarios, and a background report that explains the methodology for developing the models. All files are available for download below.

If you have questions about the use of the Galvin Value Models, please email Gene Oatman at goatman@sdg.com. The Initiative thanks Gene, his colleague Tei Lin, and Clark Gellings of EPRI for their hard work in developing these models.

To use the package: We suggest that you review the User’s Guide, then select a case study from the list below that most closely resembles your situation. This file will show you a completed analysis; review it and then alter the inputs as you wish. If your situation is not accommodated among the case studies, you can download and use one of model files instead.


User’s Guide and Background Report (PDFs)


BIPS Case Studies (Excel)


Microgrid High Reliability Case Studies (Excel)


Microgrid Mixed Development Case Studies (Excel)


Models (Excel)