Former EIA Officials Launch Open-Source Community Energy Modeling System

Former officials from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), together with energy modelers and partner organizations, have announced a new collaborative effort to build the Community National Energy Modeling System (C-NEMS), a free, open-source energy-economy modeling framework intended to give researchers and the public transparent access to the kind of modeling machinery that has long run behind closed federal doors.

For decades, EIA has developed and enhanced the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), the primary federal model used to project U.S. energy production, consumption, conversion, technology performance, and macroeconomic trends. NEMS occupies a distinctive place among energy models: rather than forcing every sector into a single mathematical structure, it allows each energy sector to be modeled with the specific logic that best reflects real-world market dynamics. That modularity is the technical foundation C-NEMS intends to carry forward.

According to the announcement, C-NEMS adapts this modular framework to be more flexible and nimble in addressing questions about a rapidly changing energy system.

The project has unusual origins. C-NEMS grew out of Project BlueSky, an EIA initiative running from 2022 to 2025 that was designed to build a next-generation energy systems model. When EIA paused that development, former EIA leaders and their research partners chose to continue the work independently, restructuring it as an open-source community project rather than letting the investment lapse.

“This work was too valuable to stop,” said Joe DeCarolis, cofounder of C-NEMS, former EIA Administrator, and current Department Head of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “Freed from a federal production schedule, we can take bigger swings.”

DeCarolis pointed to one example of those bigger swings: the team is testing creative mathematical formulations aimed at modern energy issues such as data center demand, while also potentially cutting model run times dramatically. Faster runs, he noted, would let researchers explore a wider range of energy futures than they can today. “We’re doing that work in the open, where the community can weigh in,” he said.

C-NEMS was initiated by DeCarolis and former EIA Chief Modeler Sauleh Siddiqui, now a professor at American University. The project will be guided by a founding advisory board of former energy officials and experts, with contributing modelers from Carnegie Mellon University, American University, Ohio State University, Catalyst Cooperative, and Western Spark. Current development is supported by Arnold Ventures and the William + Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Openness is the project’s defining commitment. The team is building C-NEMS in public and invites researchers, developers, and modelers to contribute to the code repository, follow progress, or collaborate through the project’s website, c-nems.org.

The Community National Energy Modeling System is described as an open-source, community-built energy-economy modeling framework that continues the foundational work of EIA’s Project BlueSky, providing modular, transparent, and freely accessible modeling code and data to advance energy systems analysis.

As an announcement of a new effort rather than a peer-reviewed study, the release describes plans and early directions, not validated results.

Subject of Research: Development of an open-source community energy-economy modeling framework by former EIA officials

Article Title: Former energy officials announce effort to develop open-source community modeling framework

Article References: Former energy officials announce effort to develop open-source community modeling framework. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: C-NEMS, open-source modeling, Energy Information Administration, NEMS, energy systems analysis, Project BlueSky, Carnegie Mellon University, electricity modeling, natural gas, energy policy, data center demand, Arnold Ventures