Regular readers will be aware of our fascination with certain records in the NEM that continue to be broken in recent times – and how these records relate to longer-term trends in the market. One particular measure that we keep an eye on here at WattClarity has been the record for ‘NEM-wide wind production’. At last reporting, we noted a then-record of 7,324MW which was metered earlier this month at 22:10 on Thursday 8th June 2023.
After zooming in on the raw wind output trend that we’ve created in ez2view, I’ve noted that it must have been a particularly windy weekend across the NEM, as this record looks to have been surpassed twice in quick succession:
- At 23:45 on Saturday 24th June 2023, NEM-wide wind output hit 7,353MW; which was then surpassed
- At 22:10 on Sunday 25th June 2023, when this number hit 7,417MW.
The now-record of 7,417MW was set at 22:10 Sunday 25th June 2023. This chart shows the total wind output for each region during the given dispatch interval.
Source: ez2view‘s Trend Editor
At the time the record was hit, wind was supplying a 30.73% share of NEM-wide grid demand. As one reader recently noted, the amount of metered wind generation in the NEM is reliant upon the generation that makes it through the dispatch process. More in-depth analysis of factors affecting non-dispatched wind generators would be required to understand how such records correlate to actual wind conditions.
Is there any way to find out how much curtailment was happening?
Yes Dave there are some methods to get an estimate:
https://wattclarity.com.au/articles/2020/06/not-as-simple-as-it-appears-estimating-curtailment-of-renewable-generation/
But I have not had the time this week to explore.. Will follow up with some analysis if time permits.
How can you publish an article on this now when we had record LOW wind generation this week resulting in high prices across the NEM. Especially of note is the non-existent wind in SA, compounded by interconnector constraints, resulting in some of the highest prices we’ve seen in the region in recent months.