Siemens and Bentley have joined forces to provide planning and design solutions for power utilities and industrial power customers.

They believe distributed energy resources like microgrids require more advanced planning approaches to ensure system reliability and stability.

Bentley’s OpenUtilities solution for utility power grid design will be integrated with Siemens’ PSS Suite for power system planning “to provide seamless workflows and data integration”.

They will also support network design for both operational and economic performance.

They believe through a connected data environment, utility engineers will have the added benefit of sharing critical design information to reduce design time and construction costs.

Ralf Christian, CEO of the Siemens Energy Management Division said: “The energy industry trend toward decentralisation represents a significant challenge as well as a great opportunity for power producers and consumers alike and our strategic alliance with Bentley Systems will help our customers better leverage this changing landscape through the combination of our powerful solutions.

“Siemens and Bentley share a commitment to openness interoperability and the common goal of helping our customers drive the digital enterprise across their supply chains.”