Iris is a whole-of-economy energy and decarbonisation modelling platform. It models the energy system from household devices to the wholesale market in a single optimisation, so the plans it produces are plans the real system can run.
Built in Canberra by the team behind some of Australia's first virtual power plants, Dynamic Operating Envelopes and CSIP-AUS.
Electricity, gas, liquid fuels and transport are converging into one system. At the same time, rooftop solar, home batteries, virtual power plants, EV charging and electrification are reshaping the low-voltage grid.
Tools that model the network, the market and the customer separately can't show how these pieces interact. New modelling capability is needed to plan, build and operate the future energy system well.
Uncoordinated management of distributed energy risks “substantial system integration costs, reduced system operability and material system security risks.”
System plans have to account for how operating envelopes, tariffs and virtual power plants will actually behave.
Operational technology has to perform the way the plan assumed it would.
Get it wrong one way and consumers pay for network they don't need. Get it wrong the other way and their solar and batteries are curtailed.
Sources: DCCEEW, reported by Energy-Storage.news (17 August 2026); AEMC final rule ERC0410 (16 July 2026); AEMO 2026 Integrated System Plan, cited by Energy Consumers Australia (June 2026); AEMO Transition Plan for System Security (December 2025), p.128.
Iris is a general-purpose, market-aware, spatio-temporal modelling platform. It handles questions from the market value of a single asset through to low-voltage and whole-system planning across electricity, gas, liquid fuels and transport.
Energy balance, thermal and voltage limits, conversion efficiencies and every storage asset's state of charge over time are built into the model, not checked afterwards.
Every result is a state the real system can reach, so a plan can be built and operated as modelled.
Iris solves for behaviour rather than taking it as an input. Every asset, from network assets to household batteries, EVs and virtual power plants, is a decision variable.
Planning and operational decisions are solved together, so forecast behaviour is realistic and the investments Iris identifies are optimal.
The core Iris modelling engine will be released as open source, so networks, regulators and their advisers can inspect exactly how results are produced. The workflow, data and AI layers built around it are Iris products.
A distribution planning study, from template to results.
AEMO's Transition Plan for System Security describes five levels for managing distributed energy. Each one makes decisions that change the others. Iris brings them into one coherent model, so the interactions between households, aggregators, networks and the bulk system can be studied together.
Levels as defined in AEMO's Transition Plan for System Security (December 2025), section 9.2.1.
Wholesale prices, dispatch and system security
Network limits, tariffs and operating envelopes
Retailers, aggregators and virtual power plant operators
Homes and businesses, optimised at site level
Solar, batteries, EVs, heat pumps and hot water systems
Low-voltage and network planning for the new 20-year, scenario-based distribution plans: hosting capacity, operating envelopes, tariffs and where to invest.
For distribution networks
How devices, sites, aggregators, networks and the market interact across all five levels, and what that means for cost, security and emissions.
For market bodies and system operators
Design virtual power plants and tariffs that work within network limits and respond to wholesale prices.
For retailers and aggregators
The market value of individual assets, siting and sizing of storage, data centre connections and precinct decarbonisation.
For developers and asset owners
Whole-of-economy questions across electricity, gas, liquid fuels and transport, such as how a carbon price flows through to household energy costs.
For governments, regulators and policy teams
Iris builds tools and capabilities for modelling teams. Through our Trusted Partner Program, advisory firms and consultants use Iris to deliver studies directly for their own clients.
Iris was founded by the people behind some of Australia's first virtual power plants, Dynamic Operating Envelopes and CSIP-AUS. All four founders work on Iris full-time.
Co-founder. Energy systems, policy and regulation
Engineering PhD with more than 15 years across energy research, industry, policy and regulation. Co-founder and CTO of Reposit Power. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Co-founder. Network innovation and commercial
Electrical engineer with more than 20 years in energy. Co-founder and CEO of Elentar, and five years as Leader of Innovation at TasNetworks.
Co-founder. Software and network modelling
20 years building tools, standards and algorithms for grid-connected energy resources at CSIRO and in industry, including power flow and dynamic pricing.
Co-founder. Optimisation and forecasting
Software developer with a PhD in quantum chemistry and a background in large-scale energy forecasting and optimisation.
Iris is part of EnergyLab's Climate Tech Charge program.
Tell us which part of the energy system you need to plan, and we'll show you what Iris can model.
