A remarkable(?) Christmas Day load shape

Tuned in tonight, briefly, and noted (see below) what seemed a remarkable demand curve for NEM-Wide demand across the NEM on Christmas Day, as seen in NEM-Watch:

Electricity demand in the NEM over Christmas Day

See how demand peaked in the morning (around 10am NEM time) before falling away considerably over lunch time and returning somewhat later at night.

To compare how this year looked to a few recent prior years, we opened up NEM-Review briefly and generated this chart:

Comparison of Christmas Day demand, 2012, to prior years

From this we see that the pattern is consistent (so not as remarkable as first thought) but that the low during the day (approximately 17,000MW) is about1,000MW lower than the previous low levels experienced in 2006 and 2007, and up to 2,500MW lower than that experienced only last year.

This would have something to do with the underlying level of declining demand, but it would also have to do with particular weather patterns on the day (a cooler day in many parts of the NEM) – and, perhaps, the fact that Christmas day was a Tuesday this year.

I’d be interested to hear, from you, what reasons you see contributing to this low level?


By the way, don’t forget to submit your entries in our 7th annual “Best Demand Forecaster in the NEM” competition before the New Year!


About the Author

Paul McArdle
One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.

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