ESOO Unboxing
Without resiling from last week’s criticism of how the headlines from AEMO’s 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) were communicated, it’d be churlish for me to fault the...
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ConfUSEd by the ESOO? You’re not alone.
I’d rather not add to the number of conspiracy theories in circulation, but I wonder if there’s a conspiracy to make understanding our electricity system in general, and...
AEMO releases its 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities – more tinder for the “energy wars” fire…
AEMO releases its Electricity Statement of Opportunities today, with an initial flurry of press coverage. Another reminder of heightened risk that the NEM is increasingly facing...
The Fuel Mix supporting the NEM is at the start of a massive transformation
Two pages taken from our Generator Report Card following several different requests from people who attended different events recently where the Report Card was discussed.
Transitional challenges require greatly enhanced analytical capability (exemplified in MT PASA Rule Change proposals, for instance)
A few additional thoughts about proposed changes to the MT PASA process, informed by our conclusions in Theme 14 within Part 2 of our Generator Report Card.
5 FAQs we’re asked about the Generator Report Card (for discussion at AIE this evening)
We've been invited by the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) to speak this evening in Sydney about some of the lessons learnt in the process of completing our...
Initial thoughts and questions about last Friday’s under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain
Some brief data gathering and analysis, primarily because I could not resist the exploration, of what might have happened with the load shedding in the electricity grid across...
Calculated level of inertia in the South Australian grid, supplied by synchronous generation plant
Last week's notable under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain following what appears to be the loss of two generation units in quick succession prompts me to publish some...
Heightened Risk an increasing feature in the NEM these days…
A full page article in the FinReview today quotes a number of people (including our work in the Generator Report Card) speaking about heightened risk in the NEM....
Summer 19-20 is heating up already, with Reserve Trader called
Bit of an uncanny coincidence, having posted some concerns about the coming summer 2019-20 only 2 days ago, to find that the AEMO has called for expressions of...
Two other opportunities to meet with us in Sydney during August, and discuss the Generator Report Card
Given the high level of interest in the Generator Report Card, both the Australian Institute of Energy and the Australian Energy Council have organised separate events (in Sydney...
Two different storm warnings in South Australia – one literal, and one metaphorical
Coincidentally this week it seems to me that we're facing storm warnings on two different fronts - one literal (and much easier to prepare for), whilst the other...
Questions and Observations–about AGL’s Liddell, Torrens A (and Loy Yang A) stations
Some thoughts about some important questions we should be asking, to follow on from AGL's announcement last Friday in relation to Torrens A (linked to Barkers Inlet and...
Assessing the diversity of intermittent (wind and solar output) as one piece of analysis in the Generator Report Card
In terms of diversity of intermittent supplies, we need to understand that we're not just comparing data series on a scale that runs from "highly correlated" to "random"...
War of Losses
Some thoughts from Derek Chapman, from Adani Renewables, in conjunction with two rule change requests at the AEMC relating to Marginal Loss Factors.
Keeping the lights on this summer – possible impact of the Loy Yang A2 and Mortlake outages
Two large thermal generating units in Victoria with combined capacity of over 800 MW have recently experienced major electrical faults each requiring many months to repair. Previous WattClarity...
Spot power at $0/MWh in all regions (Sign ‘o the Times*?)
A few thoughts about the dispatch price being at, or below, $0/MWh for a dispatch interval on Sunday afternoon - implications for the future...
A quick look at Mortlake Unit 2 outage
A quick look after the unit trip (including reported explosion) at Mortlake Unit 2
Navigating the grid – challenges for new solar farm operators
A synopsis of the presentation provided by guest author, Jonathon Dyson, at the Solar Asset Management conference earlier today in Sydney.
Which was that ‘mystery DUID’ that apparently ‘can’t stand the heat’*?
Returning to the challenge posed to readers in April 2019, to guess (or analytically determine!) which of the hundreds of units operating in the NEM showed such a...