openCEM

A free, open-source Capacity Expansion Model

Australian Renewable Energy Agency funded Open Source Grid Integration Modelling Tool, allowing decision makers, energy system planners, regulators and project developers to freely undertake extensive scenario modelling that will provide insights into potential pathways for the evolution of the NEM from the present day to a low-carbon power system.

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ITP was granted $882,000 from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Governments of NSW, Victoria and South Australia to develop an open-source Grid Integration Modelling Tool.

In particular, users can examine the impact of:

  • a range of new policy or regulatory measures;
  • economic factors such as technology costs or changes in fuel prices;
  • technological change, including cost reduction and performance improvement of energy generation, transmission, storage and energy efficiency;
  • specific large energy projects.

The development partners are:

  • ITP Analytics (a division of ITP Renewables).
  • The Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets at UNSW.
  • The Climate and Energy College at the University of Melbourne.
  • Software development specialists ThoughtWorks.
  • US Strategic Energy Analysis Center of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Key features of the modelling tool include that:

  • it is open source, allowing anybody to use the model freely and ensuring that the model results can be verified, reproduced and extended by interested stakeholders;
  • it uses publicly available datasets for technology and fuel costs, electrical demand projections and renewable energy resources (i.e. wind and solar). Additional datasets can be incorporated by interested stakeholder;
  • results for a range of scenarios can be displayed and shared by users using captivating visualisation techniques through a companion website.

Results from key scenarios are displayed and updated regularly, along with links to download the open-source code for openCEM, at www.opencem.org.au.

ITP Renewables now maintains and regularly utilises the tool for cutting-edge electricity market analysis in response to news and announcements from generators and government, to better inform the public and decision-makers of their impact. Contact us if you are interested in consulting services based on openCEM, or any of our related, custom modelling tools for analysing complex problems in grid optimisation and capacity expansion.

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