Data collected from households and businesses will inform a new national science agency CSRIO facility, the National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC), which will be combined with energy system modelling, analysis and visualisation tools, to help decision makers navigate the energy transition.
The Living Lab will consist of thousands of pre-recruited people in real homes and businesses across Australia whose energy use will be curated through a Systems Science Toolbox, a coherent multi-energy systems framework, and powerful analytical models, workflow tools and spatiotemporal visualisations.
CSIRO NEAC Design Lead and Strategic Designer Charlie Mere said NEAC will inform understanding about energy transformation challenges, to make things that help communities have an impact that works for them.
“NEAC will do different things for different people. It’s going to have a major boost for researchers and innovators. It’s going to make it faster to set up trials at a larger scale with real homes and real people,” Mere said.
“For policymakers, NEAC offers that comprehensive data from a broader range of people who would have made policies that are equitable and effective, and for planners and investors, NEAC provides a trusted national set of data to check against for making investment approvals faster and with less risk.”
Mere said for consultancies and community groups, NEAC gives easier access to data and tools that would otherwise need a specialist team to maintain.
“So, that gives you better insights to work with for tackling energy challenges,” Mere said.
“In general, NEAC will provide a high-quality, national facility backed by CSIRO, that’s open for everyone to use directly or through APIs. So, you can do your energy systems modelling and analysis across multiple energy types with social research and visualisations, so it’s a very powerful offering,”
The future of energy
NEAC will have the capacity to simulate in an open, transparent and scientifically rigorous say, what energy systems could look like in the future.
CSIRO’s Energy Director Dr Dietmar Tourbier said a transition of the scale required, 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.”
The Living Lab is already supporting one multi-institution residential research project, while the Systems Science Toolbox is being used as part of a study into optimising energy within industrial hubs.
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