How to support the adoption of open-source energy system modelling software? Insights from interviews with users and developers

Energy system models are important for decision-making and are commonly applied to questions related to the decarbonisation of the energy system, reducing the cost of supplying energy, and managing energy security. However, with this importance have come calls to open up energy system modelling to improve transparency, reproducibility, collaboration, and productivity. Despite this, in jurisdictions such as Australia, open-source energy system models are yet to see widespread adoption and reuse. To better understand how the energy modelling community can promote the adoption of open-source energy system modelling software, this work uses semi-structured interviews to investigate the factors that influence users' choice of energy system modelling software and the perspectives of software developers on these factors. The key factors influencing user choice were usability, technical capability, social context and trust, and risk. In aggregate, developers showed a broad understanding of these factors, but the responses of individual developers typically did not describe the full variation in user responses. Based on our analysis, to promote the adoption of open-source software, we recommend that open-source software (1) developers ensure models are well-documented and (2) remain aware that their perceptions of user preferences may be limited, (3) influential members of the modelling community use open-source energy system modelling software and (4) publish data sets with appropriate licenses; and that (5) the modelling community works together to prioritise potential model improvements with consideration of capability gaps and relative advantage, (6) improve model interface design, and (7) explore options for the provision of support services.