Price Setting Concepts – an Explainer
Guest author, Allan O'Neil, contributes to our series of articles explaining how prices are set the the NEM (as part of how dispatch works). In this article, Allan explains some of the details in...
Areas of deeper analysis
A twenty year review of Marginal Loss Factors
Last week the AEMO released a draft of the Marginal Loss Factors (MLFs) that would apply to both generation and loads connected to the NEM. This page on the AEMO site links to more...
The death* of “baseload” and rise of “cycling”
A quick article highlighting how the trend in aggregate number of unit starts, across the whole of the NEM, highlights the scale of one of the core underlying changes (and challenges) facing us in...
Some thoughts about Demand Response, in parallel with AEMC deliberations
A collection of thoughts that have been bumping around in my head for some time about the latest push by various parties to facilitate a broader range of demand response in the NEM, and...
A (preliminary) Intermediate Guide to How Prices are Set in the NEM
In the process of assembling a long-range data set on how much every single generator has contributed to the price of Energy in each Region of the NEM (which we're doing for our Generator...
Factors contributing to an unforeseen price spike in NSW at 16:15 on Thursday 31st January 2019
Taking a brief (well, actually longer than intended) look into the various factors that delivered a price spike above $10,000/MWh on Thursday 31st January in NSW - and thinking through the implications for one...
Very preliminary review of Quantity and Quality of Rebids suggests some interesting details…
As part of the process of compilation of our Generator Report Card 2018, we're delving into quite some detail into various aspects of generator bidding and re-bidding. Today I thought it might be useful...
AGL Investor Presentation reports on Portfolio Availability–we take a look for key Stations
AGL released its investor presentation yesterday - several people flagged the availability stats within the presentation (they knew we were looking at aspects of reliability for our Generator Report Card 2018). Hence I take...
NEM spot prices remained stubbornly high in 2018 – what were the drivers?
The surge in NEM spot prices since 2015, and related impacts on contract and retail prices, have been extensively discussed and analysed in many forums, from ACCC inquiries to Twitter. The underlying reasons for...
Extensive review of Units Off-Target, as part of Generator Report Card 2018
Some brief analysis, on the sidelines of our data gathering for the Generator Report Card 2018, looking at the changing incidence of Aggregate Absolute Off-Target for DUIDs across the NEM.
Number crunching begins, for Generator Report Card 2018 (such as with transmission constraints)
Data compilation of the Generator Report Card is underway, given we've stepped over into 2019. Here's a summary insight about the nature of coverage of bound constraint equations across all units in the NEM.
Crunch Coming–oversupply in northern Queensland?
Some conversations with new generation developers about their prospective developments in northern Queensland has prompted some analysis to help them understand the size of the addressable market for them.
We’re preparing an extensive “Generator Report Card”, and would welcome discussion (with your pre-orders)
Following from (what we have seen as) an increase in diversity of concerns (and claims) about different aspects of generator performance, we're leveraging our extensive data set and capabilities to have a deeper look,...
Reviewing the pattern of spot prices for Q2 2018 suggests that we’re far from out of the woods, yet
Returning to the theme of analysis of Q2 prices (completed in 2017 and 2016 due to Q2 historically being an uneventful period) we see that prices have backed off from the "off the charts"...
Here’s three big reasons why spot prices in Queensland are higher than they used to be
A quick outline of what have been (in my view) the three key reasons why wholesale electricity prices in Queensland have risen, compared to 5 years ago.
If spot price outcomes through Q2 2016 were “truly remarkable” then price outcomes for Q2 2017 were off the chart
A year on from my review of "remarkable" prices seen in Q2 2016, I return to the same analysis and update for Q2 2017. Outcomes are even more extreme...
Energy Supply Disruption – Understand the Customer Drivers
The energy supply industry is now a case study of major disruption and this is causing chaos. We are now witnessing the simultaneous high prices in electricity and gas – importantly at the commodity...
The ‘Finkel Review’ released on 1st June 2017
A belated link to the Finkel Review.
NEM FCAS causer pays factor issues for wind and solar farms
Generators used to consider the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) FCAS causers pays factors (CPF), used to allocate FCAS regulation costs across the market, as an obscure and unimportant technically challenging curiosity. Since 2014,...
Fast Frequency Service – Treating the symptom not the cause?
The National Electricity Market (NEM) is designed to operate at 50 Hz. Frequency deviation occurs when generation and load are mismatched. It is important in a lightly meshed and long network such as the...