A community fork of OpenDSS

See how power flows through your grid.

A free, open-source fork of OpenDSS that lets you model a real electric grid, add solar, batteries, and EV chargers, then watch how the power moves — so you can plan a cleaner, steadier grid before you build it.

Solves in a blink Any size grid 100% open source
Your neighborhood · 12.47 kV line Power on
Grid Home Solar Battery EV
What you can do

Everything you need to understand your grid.

Powerful enough for utility engineers, clear enough to explore on your own.

Watch power flow

See exactly how voltage and current move through every wire and connection — the moment anything changes.

Add clean energy

Drop in solar panels, home batteries, and EV chargers, then see how they change the grid around them.

Fast-forward a year

Run your grid minute-by-minute across a busy day or a whole year to catch the moments that matter.

Test for trouble

Find out what happens during a fault or outage — before it happens — so the grid stays safe and reliable.

Automate with Python

Already a coder? Script thousands of scenarios and plug OpenDSS straight into your own tools.

Free & yours to change

Open source, forever. Read it, extend it, share it — no license fees and no black boxes.

How it works

Three steps from idea to answer.

No special hardware, no waiting. Describe a grid and press solve.

1

Describe your grid

Lay out the lines, transformers, and homes — it's all just a simple text file you can edit anywhere.

2

Add solar, batteries & EVs

Attach the pieces you care about and set how big they are. Change your mind as many times as you like.

3

Press Solve

OpenDSS works out the voltages, currents, and losses everywhere — instantly, and ready to chart.

Get started

A grid is just a text file.

Here's a small neighborhood with a home and rooftop solar. Add a few lines, choose how you want to solve, and you're done. When you're ready for more, the same file scales to a whole city.

my-neighborhood.dss
# start from the utility connection
New Circuit.Neighborhood
~ basekv=12.47 phases=3 bus1=Grid

# run a line down the street
New Line.Main bus1=Grid bus2=Street length=500

# connect a home
New Load.House bus1=Street kV=0.24 kW=6

# add rooftop solar
New PVSystem.Roof bus1=Street kVA=5 Pmpp=5

# solve and see the result
Set mode=snap
Solve
Ways to explore

Ask your grid all kinds of questions.

Pick how you want to look at it — one moment, a full day, a whole year, or a worst-case fault.

Right now A day A year EV charging peaks Fast changes Power quality Faults & outages What-if scenarios
Join the community

Come say hi in the forum.

New releases, friendly help, and the best tips for modeling real grids — the discussion forum is where everything new lands first.

Open the forum