(Initial) Replay of Thursday evening 17th October 2024 in SA

Yesterday evening we noted:

1)  Firstly, how‘Destructive Winds disrupt (and damage) transmission network in South Australia on Thursday (evening) 17th October 2024’.

2)  Then ‘Using the ElectraNet 2024 TAPR to locate the lines with unplanned outage (on Thursday evening 17th October 2024)’.

With the advantage of ‘next day public’ dataset this morning, here’s a quick review of what happened in South Australia from 18:30 to 19:00 (in NEM time), utilising a collage of widgets in ez2view Time-Travelled back through each dispatch interval.

At 18:30 (before the storm impacted the network)

At this point we see that the flows are heading west-to-east on Heywood, but that the ‘export limit’ (maximum capability for Heywood to flow west) is up at 600MW:

At 18:35 (VIC1-SA1 export limit reduced)

At this point we see the effect of the ‘I-VS_250’ Constraint Set having been invoked (as noted in MN118994 noted here) in limiting maximum flow west on Heywood to 250MW:

At 18:40

At this point we see SA continuing to export into VIC via the Heywood interconnector:

At 18:45 (possible trip at Snowtown Wind Farm)

At this point we see Snowtown Wind Farm has dropped to 0MW output unexpectedly:

The ‘Dispatch Error’ alert shows that this was unexpected within NEMDE.

PS1 … for more information, refer to ‘Snowtown 1 Wind Farm back online (Friday morning 18th October 2024) after being offline for >12 hours’

At 18:50 (possible trip at Clements Gap Wind Farm)

At this point we see that Clements Gap Wind Farm has also dropped offline.

There is a 48MW ‘Dispatch Error’ in this case (so unexpected drop in output) … just below the 50MW alert notice threshold so not shown in ‘Notifications’ widget window.

PS2 … for more information, refer to ‘Clements Gap Wind Farm still offline, on Friday morning 18th October 2024’

At 18:55

At this point we see large drops in output at Goyder South Wind Farm and Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park:

In this Dispatch Interval, we see some constraints within South Australia start to bind.

PS3 … for more information, refer to ‘A closer look at Goyder South Wind Farm on Thursday evening 17th October 2024 (not affected by the storm?)’

At 19:00

At this point we see more drop in output at Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park:

More constraints within South Australia start to bind … some of them in the Constraint Sets invoked according to these Market Notices.

We’ll leave this here, for now…