Thousands of Australian homes and businesses will be connected in a “Living Lab” to support the country’s transition to cleaner energy.
The CSIRO’s new National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC) will combine real-world anonymised energy data from households and businesses with state-of-the-art energy system modelling, analysis and visualisation tools.
CSIRO Energy Director Dietmar Tourbier said the new national infrastructure would help to accelerate and de-risk the energy transition.
“NEAC is an independent, collaborative research centre delivering data-driven insights to support Australia’s journey to net zero,” Dr Tourbier said.
He said it would equip decision makers with a powerful toolkit to steer Australia’s energy transition with greater clarity and coordination.
“Transforming the energy system will impact every sector of the economy and every part of society.
“A transition of this scale and complexity needs a coordinated, long-term perspective.
“NEAC will help Australia navigate this journey by providing the trusted insights planners and policymakers need to inform action and reduce risk.”
Dr Tourbier said NEAC would consist of a Living Lab of thousands of people in real homes and businesses across Australia, pre-recruited and ready to participate in research.
He said there would also be a Systems Science Toolbox with rich, curated datasets in a coherent multi-energy systems framework, and powerful analytical models, workflow tools and spatiotemporal visualisations.
“Researchers, network planners, government agencies and industry will be able to use the NEAC Living Lab to more deeply understand how Australian families and businesses use energy now and in the future, to develop effective infrastructure and programs at lowest cost to consumers.”
Dr Tourbier said the CSIRO was inviting Australian residents 18 years old and over to sign up to the Living Lab.
Heath Raftery is a Living Lab participant and is anonymously sharing his circuit-level electricity use and indoor temperature and humidity data.
“I joined NEAC because I’ve been following the energy transition and see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Australia to look at the electricity grid with the consumer in mind,” Mr Raftery said.
“I’m a renter so there’s not much I can do infrastructure-wise, but having input via NEAC will help governments and providers to consider the third of the population that is renting, as they develop policies and products.”
