In early February we released our Generator Statistical Digest 2020 (GSD2020), a recent publication by Global-Roam and Greenview Strategic Consulting.
The report was the second edition of the GSD, and followed on from the GSD2019 that we released 12 months earlier. Like the previous edition, the GSD2020 contains a profile for each DUID in the NEM:
- mostly generators, but also some scheduled loads (battery charging, and hydro pumping)
- including tables, graphs, and other visualisations using ten year’s worth of performance and financial data.
We were very happy to see this year’s GSD received positively throughout the industry and to see it referenced across different media sources and used in several presentations with many analysts and journalists using the information within the report to publish deeper insights into the state of generation in the NEM. We were also pleased to receive much positive feedback on social media and directly from clients who have already made use of the report.
Below I’ve collated some of these references and comments in order to highlight the contents of the GSD and to take the opportunity to thank all those who have purchased so far, as well as the dedicated parties who assisted us in the design and development of this publication.
Generator Statistical Digest 2020
The GSD2020 was a collaborative project between Global-Roam and Greenview Strategic Consulting – a combination that also helped develop the GRC2018, GSD2019 and is working to produce further reports of analysis and insights in 2021 and beyond.
The GSD2020 covers each generating unit that was operational in the NEM in 2020. For each of these units the report contains two pages:
- Ten Year Performance Summary (2011 to 2020) – This page contains general information about the unit (Type, Location, Registration Status, etc.) with monthly aggregated metrics for performance such as revenue, utalization, bid ranges, trended MLF, unit starts, operating hours, constrained hours, etc.
- One Year Detailed Performance Summary (2020) – This page contains daily and monthly aggregated metrics for performance such as output, revenue, FCAS costs, utalization, average prices (regional, nodal and volume-weighted), raw off-target, conformance, price harvest, capacity factor range, temperature harvest, etc.
More detailed information about the report, along with the order form, can be found here.
References in the Media
Senior Business Writer for The Australian, Perry Williams, referenced the GSD in his January 31st article “ATCO hydro power push into east coast”. In his article, he quoted ITK consultant and WattClarity occasional guest author, Ben Willacy who made reference to what 2020 meant for wind and solar generators.
Energy news website RenewEconomy, reproduced a longer article of Ben Willacy’s insights from the GSD2020 in the article “Why a whole solar farm went “missing” in Queensland”. The article, which was also published on WattClarity, examines Whitsunday Solar Farm’s performance in 2020, specifically looking at its low capacity factor and possible causes.
On February 1st, Natalie Filatoff of PV Magazine published the article “New data: Sunny outlook modified, and coal as Australia’s transition fuel?” in which she examined the GSD2020 and published some of her thoughts on trends that seemed to appear in 2020, including lower-than-expected renewable energy output volume and the declining output of gas in the market as a whole.
In Early March, Ecogeneration published an interview with Paul McArdle (CEO of Global-Roam) and Jonathon Dyson (CEO of Greenview Strategic Consulting) about the release of the GSD and what it’s release means for increasing market intelligence.
References in Presentations
The GSD2020 was referenced multiple times in Morgan Stanley’s Market Update & Research Report ‘The Marginal Utility & Smexit’ released on March 12th, 2021 which highlighted GSD2020 profiles of several units to call attention to bidding volume and capacity factors. The image below shows Morgan Stanley’s Rob Koh highlighting the trend of output at Beryl Solar Farm over the course of 2019 and 2020.
Our very own Marcelle Gannon, was a speaker at last week’s CEC Large Scale Solar Forum 2021. During the session “Operating in the NEM” Marcelle used the 2020 profile of Haughton Solar Farm to demonstrate curtailment of output at the station during the month of October 2020.
Comments from Clients
We were also pleased to see a wide range of compliments sent our way via email or on social media from happy customers who purchased the GSD2020.
Below are a small number of these kind words that we received from clients:
“Thanks for sending this through, just confirming receipt and successful download! Looking forward to getting stuck in.”
Consulting Company
29th January
“Thanks, looking forward to digging into it!.”
Another Consulting Company
2nd February
“The GSD2020 has been useful once already to identify a curtailment issue for one of our invested projects last quarter. Also to see general trends in FCAS costs, battery bidding strategies, increasing sophistication in solar bidding strategies, and to visually see how much the West Murray oscillation curtailment actually impacted the affected projects.”
Monique Miller – CEFC
3rd February
… and specifically about the extensive/detailed Glossary provided with the GSD2020:
“Will also be suggesting that some of the newer recruits have a look at the definitions as it’s really useful to have these all set out in one place. ”
Monique Miller – CEFC
3rd February
“I’ve been having a great time this week digging through the 2020 GSD”
5th February 2021
“The GSD has something for everyone regardless of their level of understanding of the NEM. It’s a great piece of analysis and I’m blown away at how much useful information is able to fit on just the A and B pages for each unit.”
12th February 2021
Rupert Le Messurier – Neoen
“(Hardcopy of GSD2020) arrived safe and sound … now I just need to hire a forklift to get it out of the box… GREAT WORK”
Consultant in the NEM
25th February
… the document is big (720 pages)!
“It has provided a quick way to lookup generator information”
Dean Knight – Powerlink
3rd March 2021
“I have been looking at the PDF version and finding it very useful.”
Services Supplier to the NEM
3rd March 2021
“I received the report and it’s really terrific”
Large Generator
6th March 2021
Once again, I’d like to thank everyone involved in making the GSD2020 happen, especially the teams at Global-Roam and Greenview Strategic Consulting. I’d also like to invite all those who have already purchased to get in contact with us directly if you have any feedback that you would like to share. We will be taking all comments on board as we move forward in developing further publications covering the NEM later this year and beyond.
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