Designing Fair, Intelligent and Resilient Community Energy Systems

An International Benchmark Coopetition

Communities around the world are rapidly adopting rooftop solar, battery storage, electric vehicles and other distributed energy resources. As these technologies become increasingly interconnected, households are no longer simply consumers of electricity - they are becoming producers, storage providers and active participants in local energy systems.

While the technologies already exist, one fundamental challenge remains:

How can communities coordinate distributed energy resources to maximise economic, environmental and social value while ensuring that the benefits of cooperation are shared fairly?

The Community Energy Grand Challenge 2026 invites participants from around the world to explore this challenge through an international benchmark coopetition. Working from a common benchmark dataset, participants will design, implement and evaluate innovative coordination mechanisms for community energy systems while contributing to an evolving body of knowledge that supports future research, policy and practice.

The Challenge is a flagship initiative of ComErgy Network and its associated Community Energy Futures Conference (ComErgy 2026). It marks the beginning of a long-term international effort to advance community energy through open benchmarking and shared learning.

Why Coopetition?

Complex societal challenges cannot be solved by a single discipline, organisation or algorithm. They require diverse perspectives, transparent comparison and continuous learning.

The Community Energy Grand Challenge is founded on the principle of coopetition - the belief that collaboration and competition are complementary rather than contradictory. Participants strive to develop outstanding solutions while simultaneously contributing to an evolving international benchmark that enables others to compare, reproduce and build upon previous work.

Rather than rewarding only a single winning idea, the initiative seeks to establish an open community of practice where every contribution advances collective knowledge. Each solution submitted to the ComErgy Coopetition strengthens an international benchmark repository that supports researchers, industry, governments and communities working towards fair, intelligent and resilient community energy systems.

Coopetition transforms individual innovation into collective progress.

The 2026 Benchmark

The inaugural benchmark represents a residential community in Sydney, Australia, comprising nine households with diverse electricity demand profiles and distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar and battery storage.

The households cooperate by sharing locally generated electricity before importing electricity from, or exporting surplus electricity to, the wider electricity grid. Participants are invited to design a coordination mechanism that enables the community to maximise the value of its local energy resources while ensuring that the benefits of cooperation are distributed fairly among participating households.

Rather than prescribing a particular methodology, the Challenge encourages creativity and interdisciplinary thinking. Participants are free to draw upon optimisation, artificial intelligence, economics, market design, governance, behavioural science, digital twins, visual analytics or other relevant disciplines - or combine them in novel ways - to develop transparent, practical and trustworthy solutions.

The ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026

The ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026 is released on 27 July 2026, marking the official launch of the Challenge.

The dataset provides the key information required to model and analyse the benchmark community, including electricity demand profiles, distributed energy resources, electricity tariffs and supporting data. Every participant works from exactly the same benchmark, ensuring that solutions can be evaluated consistently and compared transparently.

The benchmark has been developed as a reusable research resource that will continue to evolve through future editions of the Community Energy Grand Challenge, enabling long-term comparison and continuous innovation.

Download the ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026

Evaluation

Solutions will be evaluated through a combination of benchmark performance metrics and expert review. Assessment considers economic performance, fairness and community benefit, environmental and grid performance, innovation, and the practicality and scalability of the proposed approach.

The objective is not simply to identify the highest-performing algorithm, but to recognise solutions that demonstrate technical excellence while remaining understandable, trustworthy and capable of supporting real communities.

Detailed evaluation criteria are provided in the ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026: Benchmark and Participant Guide.

Who Can Participate?

Participation is open to individuals and multidisciplinary teams from anywhere in the world.

The Community Energy Grand Challenge welcomes students, researchers, industry professionals, government practitioners, start-ups and community organisations. Because community energy combines engineering, economics, policy, governance and social innovation, collaboration across disciplines is strongly encouraged.

Recognition

Outstanding contributions to the ComErgy Coopetition will be recognised during the Community Energy Futures Conference 2026 through three awards.

The ComErgy Grand Challenge Champion recognises the strongest overall solution across all evaluation criteria. The ComErgy Community Impact Award celebrates the approach with the greatest potential to deliver equitable and lasting benefits for communities. The ComErgy Future Energy Innovation Award recognises the most original and forward-looking contribution.

Timeline

27 July 2026: Community Energy Grand Challenge launched and the ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026 released

1 September 2026: Online submission portal opens

18 October 2026: Submission deadline

13 November 2026: Finalists announced

7–9 December 2026: Final presentations and awards at the Community Energy Futures Conference 2026

Looking Beyond 2026

The Community Energy Grand Challenge has been established as a long-term international benchmark coopetition. Future editions will introduce progressively more sophisticated benchmark datasets representing larger communities, electric vehicles, community batteries, network constraints, resilience, multi-community coordination and emerging energy market structures.

Over time, the initiative aims to create an open repository of benchmark datasets, innovative solutions and evaluation results that supports research, education, evidence-based policy and real-world implementation. More importantly, it seeks to cultivate an international Community of Practice in which researchers, practitioners and communities learn from one another and collectively shape the future of community energy.

Get Started

The Community Energy Grand Challenge follows a simple three-stage journey.

From 27 July 2026, download the ComErgy Benchmark Dataset 2026 and begin developing your solution.

From 1 September 2026, submit your solution through the online submission portal.

Shortlisted participants will be invited to present their work during the Community Energy Futures Conference 2026, where the ComErgy Awards will be presented.

Submit Your Solution (Available from 1 September 2026)