National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC)

The challenge

Australia's energy system is undergoing rapid change. Energy sources and their impacts are changing, households are more involved as consumers and suppliers, new and existing industries are developing pathways to decarbonisation, and shifting global markets and supply chains continue to have influence in Australia. It's a whole new way of thinking about energy – becoming more interconnected and dynamic than ever before.

So, in 2025 we established the National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC) to develop and provide a modern research toolbox that can help planners, governments, industry and users coordinate and guide these energy system changes in a holistic way.

The solution

NEAC is designed to integrate technical and social aspects of the energy transition to provide fast, accurate data at any scale. It features:

• A Living Lab of thousands of diverse people and appliances in real homes and businesses across Australia, pre-recruited and ready for research.
• A Systems Science Toolbox with rich, curated datasets, structured in a coherent multi-energy systems science framework; and powerful analytical tools.

The NEAC Living Lab gives researchers access to a pre-recruited pool of Australian households and businesses to test energy-related hypotheses at scale. The Lab includes diverse participants such as hard-to-reach demographics, streamlined recruitment, and built-in research infrastructure. The NEAC Living Lab is for researchers needing faster, more diverse recruitment; innovators seeking large-scale real-world data for investors; and policy makers testing potential interventions.

The Systems Science Toolbox will provide curated datasets and transparent models, streamlining the path to analysis. It will enable users to model the whole energy system flexibly across spatial scales, including electricity, gas, liquid fuels and heat, and adjacent systems such as water and transport. With seamless integration into existing workflows to reduce setup time, users will be able to focus on what really matters: delivering high-impact insights to drive real change.

The challenge

Australia's energy system is undergoing rapid change. Energy sources and their impacts are changing, households are more involved as consumers and suppliers, new and existing industries are developing pathways to decarbonisation, and shifting global markets and supply chains continue to have influence in Australia. It's a whole new way of thinking about energy – becoming more interconnected and dynamic than ever before.

So, in 2025 we established the National Energy Analysis Centre (NEAC) to develop and provide a modern research toolbox that can help planners, governments, industry and users coordinate and guide these energy system changes in a holistic way.

The solution

NEAC is designed to integrate technical and social aspects of the energy transition to provide fast, accurate data at any scale. It features:

• A Living Lab of thousands of diverse people and appliances in real homes and businesses across Australia, pre-recruited and ready for research.
• A Systems Science Toolbox with rich, curated datasets, structured in a coherent multi-energy systems science framework; and powerful analytical tools.

The NEAC Living Lab gives researchers access to a pre-recruited pool of Australian households and businesses to test energy-related hypotheses at scale. The Lab includes diverse participants such as hard-to-reach demographics, streamlined recruitment, and built-in research infrastructure. The NEAC Living Lab is for researchers needing faster, more diverse recruitment; innovators seeking large-scale real-world data for investors; and policy makers testing potential interventions.

The Systems Science Toolbox will provide curated datasets and transparent models, streamlining the path to analysis. It will enable users to model the whole energy system flexibly across spatial scales, including electricity, gas, liquid fuels and heat, and adjacent systems such as water and transport. With seamless integration into existing workflows to reduce setup time, users will be able to focus on what really matters: delivering high-impact insights to drive real change.

Box showing Living Lab with four icons:

• Thousands of people across Australia
• Diverse homes and businesses
• Sensor and behind-the-meter data
• Real world product and innovation testing

Box showing Systems Science Toolbox with four icons:

• Asset-level to national scale data
• All energy types and adjacent systems
• Modelling and analytical tools
• Unifying reference architecture

Underneath those two boxes are the words: Knowledge Hub

Underneath Knowledge Hub: Open for all to use - innovators, researchers, investors, policymakers, planners, communities

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