Smart Energy

Opportunity

The energy transformation is an integrated systems problem.

Australia’s energy system is set to undergo a major overhaul in the coming decades. We need to cut carbon emissions and make our system more resilient. This transformation will bring together sectors and fields that haven't historically worked closely together.

As we move forward, energy users will play an active role in how the system operates. It’s a whole new way of thinking about energy – more interconnected and dynamic than ever before.

The challenge is that we currently lack the tools we need to pull this off smoothly. We’re missing a modern toolbox that can help us coordinate and guide this transformation in a holistic way.

That is why we are creating the National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC).

NEAC will be a national energy digital hub, hosted by CSIRO, featuring:

• A Living Lab of 1000s of people in real homes and businesses across Australia, pre-recruited and ready for research.
• A Data Nexus with rich data and analytical capabilities, structured in a coherent multi-energy systems framework.
• An Insights Platform with powerful geospatial visualisations and analysis, backed by modern systems science.
• And extensive Innovation Networks of NEAC users and collaborators.

NEAC will be a game-changer for Australia, offering a reliable and collaborative platform for catalysing innovation and the path to Net Zero. It will boost decision-making, spur better outcomes, and prioritise people in our shift towards cleaner energy.

Our approach

To achieve our target of net zero emissions by 2050, we need to recognise that the energy transformation is an integrated systems problem encapsulating engineering, economics, environmental, social, regulatory, and digital questions. All these aspects need to be addressed in an integrated systems solution.

No single energy technology will achieve this transformation. Rather it will require the application of a combination of existing and emerging technologies that will change in time as these technologies evolve in the context of market demand and government policy.

Contemporary methodologies such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) are key to managing the complexities of our evolving energy systems.

The level of MBSE maturity in the Australian energy sector is relatively low, unlike in other sectors such as Defence and Aerospace, where it is more advanced. An objective of the Smart Energy Mission is to build integrated systems intelligence into Australia’s energy transformation with MBSE principles as a foundation.

Current projects

Some of the latest projects of the Smart Energy Mission include

X, moonshot factory (a division of Google LLC)

A co-investment project to directly support the integrated system intelligence objectives of the mission. The project will demonstrate the role of inverter-based renewable energy resources in providing both better utilisation of electricity networks and wider system grid services.

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)

The Energy Climate Resilience Project draws on multiple Programs across the Environment and CSIRO’s Energy Business Units to investigate the vulnerability profile of the 2030 energy system under the ISP step change scenario, examining how this will influence future risks for critical energy infrastructure, and assessing the opportunities for investment in climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and resilience.

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW)

A co-investment project between DCCEEW and CSIRO encompassing public perception about the energy transformation. The surveys will be uploaded to a public-facing dashboard, allowing people to interrogate the results.

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Mission

Australia is becoming a global leader in consumer-owned PVs and batteries, which are also known as network-connected customer energy resources (CERs). CERs are becoming an increasingly important part of Australia’s energy infrastructure, which creates the challenge of determining how to secure a large and growing number of distributed assets. The Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Mission and the Smart Energy Mission have joined efforts, with funding support from the Mission’s Program Co-investment Fund, to identify and address increasing cyber security risks from the increased connection of consumer energy resources (CER) to our energy networks.