Creating a technology ecosystem for energy requires the expertise of researchers, other research support units in Monash and experiences of industry. At MeRC we are gathering research and industry together to collaboratively design technology that can underpin faster, better and stronger research discovery and transform commercial practice.
We are collaborating with experts of the domain from Monash Energy Institute (MuEI) where researchers conduct the world-leading multi-disciplinary research to foster transitioning to a sustainable energy future. MuEI has significant expertise in applying energy system optimization and AI techniques that helped us implement innovative, smart and reliable energy solutions as microgrid services for the Monash Smart Grid platform.
ClimateWorks
Monash Sustainable Development Institute
ClimateWorks works within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute are accelerating the transition to net zero emissions for Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. We worked with ClimateWorks Australia to develop our initial Net Zero strategy including a feasibility study of how we can reduce our emissions at scale and having a cost-benefit analysis of how we can achieve the net zero 2030 target based on their deep decarbonisation pathways framework.
Department of Econometrics & Business Statistics
Faculty of Business & Economics
We collaborated with researchers from the Faculty of Business & Economics, experts of econometrics and business statistics, to put the “smart” into smart devices. We closely worked with Prof. Farshid Vahid who is also an expert in forecasting and time-series analysis and developed forecasting models to predict the campus-level energy consumption/demand over a period of time to better understand the grid behaviour with increasing uptake of renewable energy resources.
Power Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PEARL)
Monash Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE)
Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) is a diverse field. It encompasses biomedical, computer systems, electronics, electrical power, robotics and telecommunications. We are working closely with the Power Engineering Advanced Research Lab (PEARL) led by Dr Reza Razzaghi to develop technology that will underpin their research into innovative technologies to deliver secure, sustainable, and reliable electric power.
The Woodside Monash Energy Partnership is a major research partnership between Monash University and Woodside Energy to progress energy solutions for a lower-carbon future. Building on the success of the Woodside FutureLab At Monash University, along with the NetZero team, we have partnered with Woodside Energy to exploit the transformational research and novel carbon-neutral technologies of scale and impact to accelerate our transition to a sustainable energy future by 2050.
A global organisation under the auspicious of the Linux Foundation, LF Energy and MeRC are collaborating to accelerate the formation of a global open source energy ecosystem that supports energy grids of the future – loosely coupled systems that are resilient, and manageable, and observable. LF Energy has strong international partnerships with industry and institutions, providing a diverse and expert community network.
RedGrid is building an Internet of Energy that supports the transitions to net zero emissions. They are developing architectures of networks and together with MeRC, have been working on the ledger component of a transactive energy market. This partnership is a demonstration of the blending of research and commercial perspectives in the development of open source technology.
MeRC is a University commitment to accelerating research by applying advanced computing and information technology to important research problems. The centre partners with individual researchers, Australian research institutions and facilities and global research communities. MeRC is a leader amongst international eResearch initiatives and runs a number of national projects including the MASSIVE high performance computing facility, R@CMon – a node of the Australian Research Cloud, petascale data storage infrastructure, and the national Characterisation Virtual Laboratory.
This initiative is a Monash University commitment to achieve net zero emission across its four Australian campuses by 2030. Funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Net Zero Initiative’s Smart Energy City project aims to develop a grid-interactive microgrid at Monash University’s Clayton campus to maximise the utilisation of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and loads in a coordinated fashion. MeRC is providing the foundation infrastructure for the Smart Energy City including a transactive energy model for the Clayton Campus microgrid.