Abstract Real-time energy management systems that are designed to support consumer supply and demand spectrums of electrical energy continue to face challenges with respect to designing accurate and reliable real-time forecasts due to the stochasticity of model construction data and the model’s inability to disseminate both the short- and the long-term electrical energy demand (G) predictions. Using real G data from Queensland, Australia’s second largest state, and employing the support vector regression (SVR) model integrated with an improved version of empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN) tool, this study aims to propose a novel hybrid model: ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR. Optimization of the model’s weights and biases was performed using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. ICEEMDAN was applied to improve the hybrid model’s forecasting accuracy, addressing non-linear and non-stationary issues in time series inputs by decomposing statistically significant historical G data into intrinsic mode functions (IMF) and a residual component. The ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR model was then individually constructed to forecast IMFs and the residual datasets and the final G forecasts were obtained by aggregating the IMF and residual forecasted series. The performance of the ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR technique was compared with alternative approaches: ICEEMDAN-multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) and ICEEMDAN-M5 model tree, as well as traditional modelling approaches: PSO-SVR, MARS and M5 model tree algorithms. To develop the models, data were partitioned into different subsets: training (70%), validation (15%), and testing (15%), and the tuned forecasting models with near global optimum solutions were applied and evaluated at multiple horizons: short-term (i.e., weekends, working days, whole weeks, and public holidays), and long-term (monthly). Statistical metrics including the root-mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and their relative to observed means (RRMSE and MAPE), Willmott’s Index (WI), the Legates and McCabe Index ( E LM ) and Nash–Sutcliffe coefficients ( E NS ), were used to assess model accuracy in the independent (testing) period. Empirical results showed that the ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR model performed well for all forecasting horizons, outperforming the alternative comparison approaches: ICEEMDAN-MARS and ICEEMDAN-M5 model tree and the PSO-SVR, PSO-MARS and PSO-M5 model tree algorithm. Due to its high predictive utility, the two-phase ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR hybrid model was particularly appropriate for whole week forecasts ( E NS = 0.95 , MAPE = 0.89 % , RRMSE = 1.22 % , and E LM = 0.79 ), and monthly forecasts ( E NS = 0.70 , MAPE = 2.18 % , RRMSE = 3.18 % , and E LM = 0.56 ). The excellent performance of the ICEEMDAN-PSO-SVR hybrid model indicates that the two-phase hybrid model should be explored for potential applications in real-time energy management systems.