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Open Energy Stack Specification

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OpenEnergyStack

Designing the Grid of the Next Century

OpenEnergyStack is an open-source platform for planning, designing, operating, and governing modern energy infrastructure. It provides an integrated framework for utilities, governments, municipalities, cooperatives, researchers, and communities to build resilient, transparent, and intelligent energy systems using open standards and collaborative engineering.

Rather than being a single application, OpenEnergyStack is a modular infrastructure platform composed of independent services that can be deployed together or individually. Every component communicates through open interfaces, allowing organizations to customize deployments while maintaining interoperability.


Vision

Modern energy infrastructure is one of the most complex systems ever created, yet many of the tools used to plan and manage it remain fragmented, proprietary, or inaccessible.

OpenEnergyStack provides an open alternative by combining infrastructure planning, engineering intelligence, simulation, governance, analytics, and operational monitoring into a unified ecosystem.

The platform is designed to support projects ranging from local microgrids to national transmission systems while promoting transparency, resilience, interoperability, and community participation.


Goals

  • Open infrastructure planning
  • Transparent decision making
  • Modular architecture
  • Vendor-neutral deployment
  • Standards-based interoperability
  • Community participation
  • Long-term infrastructure resilience
  • AI-assisted planning and forecasting
  • Public accountability

Modular Architecture

Every component is implemented as an independent module with well-defined APIs.

Modules may operate as:

  • standalone services
  • distributed services
  • cloud deployments
  • local-first deployments
  • hybrid infrastructure
  • federated deployments

Communication between modules may occur through REST APIs, message queues, event streams, or other open protocols.


Core Modules

Open Energy Atlas

Comprehensive geospatial infrastructure mapping.

Features
  • transmission mapping
  • substation mapping
  • transformer inventory
  • renewable resource mapping
  • environmental constraints
  • land-use analysis
  • infrastructure overlays
  • AI demand mapping
  • demographic analysis

Grid Simulation Engine

Infrastructure planning and simulation environment.

Features
  • power flow simulation
  • transmission optimization
  • renewable integration
  • storage simulation
  • demand forecasting
  • contingency analysis
  • resilience modeling
  • capacity planning
  • long-term infrastructure scenarios

Infrastructure Design Library

Standardized engineering templates.

Features
  • solar farm templates
  • wind farm templates
  • battery storage templates
  • nuclear infrastructure templates
  • transmission templates
  • substation templates
  • engineering documentation
  • permitting guidance
  • cost estimation

Grid Intelligence

Real-time operational intelligence.

Features
  • telemetry collection
  • operational dashboards
  • infrastructure monitoring
  • anomaly detection
  • predictive maintenance
  • outage visualization
  • congestion monitoring
  • asset health monitoring

Infrastructure Planning

Planning and project management.

Features
  • transmission corridor planning
  • interconnection management
  • easement planning
  • infrastructure lifecycle tracking
  • project scheduling
  • infrastructure dependency mapping

Energy Economics

Economic planning and analysis.

Features
  • infrastructure cost analysis
  • ratepayer modeling
  • financing models
  • investment forecasting
  • energy market analytics
  • infrastructure ROI analysis

Distributed Energy Management

Management of decentralized resources.

Features
  • rooftop solar
  • battery coordination
  • EV integration
  • microgrid coordination
  • virtual power plants
  • distributed generation planning

Environmental Intelligence

Environmental planning and reporting.

Features
  • emissions reporting
  • carbon accounting
  • pollution monitoring
  • environmental impact analysis
  • water resource analysis
  • biodiversity considerations

Governance

Open governance framework.

Features
  • Grid Constitution
  • infrastructure auditing
  • public participation
  • infrastructure transparency
  • governance workflows
  • policy documentation
  • regulatory tracking

Infrastructure Security

Protection of critical infrastructure.

Features
  • cybersecurity monitoring
  • anomaly detection
  • infrastructure hardening
  • incident management
  • vulnerability tracking
  • security compliance

Knowledge Platform

Shared infrastructure knowledge.

Features
  • engineering documentation
  • educational resources
  • standards library
  • workforce knowledge
  • research repository
  • collaborative documentation

Infrastructure Ledger

Infrastructure transparency platform.

Features
  • project registry
  • construction history
  • maintenance history
  • lifecycle records
  • public auditing
  • cryptographic verification

AI Intelligence

Artificial intelligence services.

Features
  • infrastructure forecasting
  • demand prediction
  • optimization
  • planning assistance
  • predictive maintenance
  • operational recommendations

Optional Plugin Modules

OpenEnergyStack supports optional plugins that extend the platform without modifying the core.

Digital Twin Plugin

  • real-time grid twin
  • scenario simulation
  • infrastructure visualization

Microgrid Plugin

  • microgrid planning
  • islanding simulation
  • resilience analysis

Hydrogen Infrastructure Plugin

  • hydrogen production
  • storage planning
  • pipeline management

Energy Storage Plugin

  • battery optimization
  • storage forecasting
  • long-duration storage planning

AI Data Center Plugin

  • compute demand forecasting
  • data center planning
  • cooling analysis
  • energy allocation

Community Energy Plugin

  • cooperative management
  • public participation
  • community investment
  • energy sharing

Citizen Investment Plugin

  • community funding
  • infrastructure investment
  • dividend management
  • public ownership tracking

Workforce Plugin

  • workforce mapping
  • certification tracking
  • labor forecasting
  • training management

Procurement Plugin

  • supplier marketplace
  • contractor management
  • procurement workflows

Permitting Plugin

  • permit tracking
  • regulatory workflows
  • environmental reviews

Supply Chain Plugin

  • manufacturing intelligence
  • transformer inventory
  • material forecasting
  • logistics analysis

Climate Resilience Plugin

  • wildfire modeling
  • flood modeling
  • hurricane simulation
  • climate adaptation

Space Weather Plugin

  • solar storm monitoring
  • geomagnetic event analysis
  • transformer risk assessment

Water Infrastructure Plugin

  • cooling water analysis
  • aquifer monitoring
  • desalination planning

Infrastructure Recycling Plugin

  • material recovery
  • recycling analytics
  • circular economy planning

Market Intelligence Plugin

  • wholesale pricing
  • capacity markets
  • transmission pricing
  • market forecasting

Inter-State Coordination Plugin

  • regional planning
  • power sharing
  • emergency coordination

Global Knowledge Exchange Plugin

  • engineering collaboration
  • standards exchange
  • research publishing

Design Principles

OpenEnergyStack follows several core principles.

  • Open by default
  • Modular architecture
  • API-first design
  • Local-first capable
  • Cloud compatible
  • Vendor neutral
  • Federated deployments
  • Human-centered governance
  • AI-assisted decision support
  • Security by design
  • Transparent infrastructure
  • Extensible plugin ecosystem

Intended Users

  • utilities
  • municipalities
  • state governments
  • federal agencies
  • energy cooperatives
  • engineering firms
  • infrastructure operators
  • universities
  • researchers
  • nonprofit organizations
  • emergency planners
  • developers

Long-Term Vision

OpenEnergyStack is intended to become the open infrastructure foundation for modern energy systems.

Future development may extend beyond electricity into water infrastructure, transportation systems, communications infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, and other critical public systems while maintaining the same principles of openness, transparency, interoperability, and collaborative governance.


Specification Branding License (SBL)

Standard

Optional


License & Notice Requirements

OpenEnergyStack is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.

Please note the following:

  • All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
  • Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to:
    Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
  • OpenEnergyStack specificiations are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
  • The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments.
    Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
  • When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
  • Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.

For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.


Notice – OpenEnergyStack

Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.

Contributors

This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.

  • Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – March 13, 2026
    Created the repository for OpenEnergyStack. Developed the open-source platform for planning, building, and monitoring energy infrastructure, including all modules for grid simulation, AI forecasting, and transparency.
  • [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
    [Describe contribution in one sentence]

License – OpenEnergyStack

This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).

Key Points

  • You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
  • All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
  • The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.

For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.