The Melbourne Cup was on Tuesday (and we commemorated in our own special way with NEM-Watch, and in our re-opened competition for summer).
Coincident with the race, we’ve seen a number of comments in social media about the coincident (& large) drop in demand in NSW that occurred around the same time – a number of people linking the two together. Last year we posted both:
1) A review on Monday prior to the 2014 race of the effect of previous years; and
2) This review of how electricity demand changed in 2014 coincident with the running of the horses.
Here’s how this Tuesday’s change looked in NEM-Watch:
We should clarify, however, that (as noted in the image above) the large drop in load in 2015 was not due to the horse race, exciting as that might have been…
Okay, I’m in suspense. So what did cause the significant drop in demand in NSW?
…it was Tomago Aluminium.
Thanks Tom
That’s my understanding also – however I did not know, for sure, if that information was public knowledge hence was not going to be the first to state so.
Paul
Th e story portrayed by the aluminium industry is that they couldn’t possibly participate in any load shedding at any time, because then all their pot lines would need to be emptied out of solid aluminium. Yet when when the problem is their side of the meter it doesn’t seem to be a problem.