Aggregate wind production peaked above 5,000MW for the first time (NEM-wide) – on Friday 1st May 2020
Quick notes about a new peak in wind farm output across the NEM that occurred on Friday evening last week (1st May 2020).
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Spot prices plunge in QLD, and may well remain underwater for the coming week
Three main factors contributed to the spot prices in Queensland dropping underwater today for a number of hours - with some factors suggesting this might be the pattern...
AEMO releases its first* ‘Renewable Integration Study’ on 30th April 2020
An article today providing links to the 'Renewable Integration Study' which the AEMO released today, and also to the headline media coverage I have seen on my quick...
Two papers released by COAG Energy Council are early stages in fleshing out ‘NEM 2.0’
Some brief initial thoughts, following the release of two discussion papers by the COAG Energy Council - the first on two-sided markets, and the second seeming to cover...
Observing Easter Saturday, a little belatedly
Guest author, Allan O'Neil, invests some time to explore a number of different aspects of Easter Saturday (11th April 2020), each noteworthy in their own right (including low...
Careful with the ‘doomsday claims’ that COVID responses have (or will) massively reduced aggregate underlying electricity consumption in the NEM….
… because the evidence currently suggests that this is just not the case (in this article I explore and explain further)
Four units trip in Victoria on Easter Saturday
A quick look at Saturday 11th April (Easter Saturday) where there were major reductions in output at 4 units across Victoria - 3 coal units in the Latrobe...
Do you know the difference between Virtual Inertia and Fast Frequency Response?
Our guest author Stephen Sproul looks at how the Dalrymple Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), currently the only source of virtual inertia on the NEM, responded to the...
Semi-scheduled Generation Availability Forecasts–how to improve?
In her first article for WattClarity, Marcelle looks at questions raised in the recent summer on the forecasting of performance at high temperatures of wind and solar generators,...
Electricity demand as a Performance Metric, in the age of coronavirus
This started as a consideration of how applicable 'change of electricity demand' is as a general metric for communicating the impact of coronavirus (and measures taken to address...
ICYMI – COAG EC flags reliability framework changes
Guest author, Allan O'Neil tries to piece together further detail of what is intended with the apparent tightening of the Reliability Standard (which has sat at 0.002% USE...
1st thoughts on possible impacts of COVID-19 on Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM)
Like everyone else, we're grappling with how COVID-19 will impact on us personally - and also in terms of what we do at work. Here's a few initial...
Using the GSD2019 to explore the VALUE of Dispatchability
An article published by AEMC on the 'value of dispatchability' provided the spur to return to our intention of freely sharing insights gleaned from the Generator Statistical Digest...
Scheduled Demand in South Australia drops to levels not seen since the history of the NEM (excluding System Black)
Alarms in one of our NEMwatch dashboards alerted me to the plunging level of Scheduled Demand seen this afternoon in the the Victorian and South Australian regions of...
We’ve been killing New Entrants with kindness?
Last week saw more in a growing series of exits, and asset write-downs, amongst new entrants in the supply of renewable energy within the NEM. Today on WattClarity...
Surviving on the island – again
Another islanding event separated the SA region from the rest of the NEM yesterday (Monday, 2nd of March). Allan O'Neil investigates what happened before the event and possible...
Reviewing the ‘accelerated accidental experiment’ thrust on SA during the islanding (31st Jan to 17th Feb) – a 1st review
As time has permitted, I've invested some time to prepare this first stage of a review of what went on during the period from 31st Jan 2020 to...
South Australia islanded again – Monday 2nd March at 12:00
Two weeks ago (Monday 17th February) a 'temporary fix' was put in place to reconnect SA with VIC following the transmission line outage that began on 31st January...
AEMC Rule Change (Feb 2020) agrees with much of what ERM proposed – for ‘Improving transparency and extending duration of MT PASA’
A back-dated article, looking back at the two ERM rule change requests which, when passed by the AEMC, had great effect in expanding transparency in the NEM in...
FCAS Matters – More than ever
Jonathon Dyson of Greenview Strategic Consulting uses the Generator Statistical Digest to highlight FCAS revenue results, contingency recovery and regulation costs for 2019, and help explain why it...