Around the nation | Wanted: 10,000 households to plug in to energy research

The nation’s science agency, CSIRO, launched the National Energy Analysis Centre on Thursday, July 17. It will capture real-world energy use, and has been modelled on a similar body in the United Kingdom.

The centre will also team with universities, electricity retailers and others to model future demands on the national grid.

The announcement comes amid change in the Australian energy market, with household demand for solar panels and energy storage primed for growth by the recent launch of the $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

Research into electricity and gas use has been ‘’piecemeal’’ despite significant investment in the energy market and policy changes, centre director Stephen Craig said.

Individual research efforts such as Saul Griffith’s Electrify 2515 pilot project have probed the market, he said, but Australia was yet to collect broad energy data on a national basis.

‘’What we want to do is get an understanding of how energy is used today, how energy flows in the household and small businesses as well, but also get a handle on what people like and don’t like,’’ he said.

The centre aims to recruit 1000 participants in its first year and ultimately reach 10,000 households and businesses throughout Australia, he said, similar to the Living Lab in the UK.

The Australian centre would also develop energy system modelling, analysis and visualisation tools to assist research.

Along with analysing a wide range of households, Dr Craig said it would be important to assess the use of solar panels, electric vehicles and household batteries because they could take pressure off the national grid.

‘’There’s more and more of the energy system in the hands of households,’’ he said.

‘’We don’t want to under-build because then we may not have a robust system, but we don’t want to overbuild either, so to have better data on how people are using energy and want to use energy is helpful.’’