Electricity demand stopped declining after 2014 (on a NEM-wide, Annual Average basis)
A comment made by TransGrid at the Energy Networks 2018 conference today jolted me to update my (somewhat) outdated paradigm of declining demand.
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Winter 2018 in the NEM
A collection of articles about events that occurred through winter 2018 in the NEM (i.e. from 1st June to 31st August 2018)
AEMO issues LOR2 warning for South Australia for next Thursday, 31st May
Yesterday (Thu 24th May) AEMO issued a Low Reserve Condition notice (at LOR2 level) for South Australia next Thursday 31st May. We take a quick look....
An updated look at daily curtailment of aggregate wind farm output across South Australia
This morning over on Twitter, I was pulled into a discussion that had started with respect to volume of wind energy curtailed in South Australia: The genesis...
Helping our clients make sense of (and grasp the opportunities in) the AEMO’s new MT PASA data sets
A brief first look at AEMO's new MT PASA data sets - as we push forward in the next upgrade of our ez2view software to help our clients...
The “Solar Correlation Penalty” has already arrived in the NEM
Already we are seeing the highly correlated output of solar PV deliver interesting challenges for the NEM - both to the project proponents themselves, and also to the...
A timely reminder of the need for *much* more diversity in wind harvest patterns
Alerted by our NEMwatch dashboard, I delve into the data and see a scary degree of correlation between the (very low) output of wind farms in south-east South...
Network outage, and low wind, combine to drive spot price volatility in the SA region on Thursday 26th April
An unexpected network outage in the south-east of South Australia restricts supplies from Victoria at a time of low wind supply in South Australia and results in the...
An explainer about electricity demand [take 1]
Following from a steady stream of questions we receive in relation to a range of our products (but in particular with respect to "the RenewEconomy Widget") we've invested...
When the NEM’s Largest Generating Unit Trips …
A follow-on to my earlier article of a couple weeks ago, looking at another instance where a team effort was required to counter a drop in system frequency...
Renewable energy – did it just laze about over summer?
A review of the high demand periods over summer 2017/18 highlights the important contribution renewable generation is making to meeting peak demand and addressing the reliability of the...
FCAS in Action – What Happens When a Generator Trips? (or Never let the data get in the way of a good story)
Understanding the FCAS response by all generators when a unit trips in the NEM. A detailed look at the Loy Yang A unit trip in December 2017 and...
Just because a company wears a “green halo”, that does not mean it can disrespect its potential customers [UPDATED]
An advertisement seen on TV in recent days from a (relatively) new entrant in the energy sector reinforces, to me, the need for the energy sector more broadly...
Power System Frequency – What is it doing? – Why does it matter?
The East Coast power system of Australia has the worst frequency regulation in the developed world. This puts the system at risk whenever an event occurs which requires...
Short term forecasting of wind power plant generation for the provision of ancillary services
As NEM wind power plants progressively work towards implementing FCAS, the criticality of ensuring that the power system either a) takes account of the variability in the wind...
Let’s Keep Talking About FCAS
Following on from the Let's Talk About FCAS post, the focus of this post is the business case and subsequent optimisation challenge for getting involved in FCAS, now...
Autumn 2018 in the NEM
A collection of articles about things we see occurring in the NEM.
Power station ‘trips’ are normal, but blackouts are not
Understanding the difference between blackouts, generator trips and intermittent generation and how these events are managed.
Grandfathers Axe or Low Hanging Fruit?
Upgrading our existing coal thermal fleet to increase efficiency and flexibility could provide a cost-effective opportunity to add dispatchable capacity and lower the overall carbon intensity of our...
Third peak Scheduled Demand in Queensland in 3 days – 9,924 MW at 16:50 Wednesday 14th February
A new peak Scheduled Demand and Operational Demand in Queensland today with Scheduled Demand still over 9,100 MW after 8 PM.