Whilst the heat down south has dissipated, Queenslanders have been sweating through some hot and humid days over the past week – these conditions drove electricity demand in Queensland into out of the “boring” green zone and into the orange zone above 8,000MW this afternoon.
Taking advantage of the higher demand, generators were able to enjoy a couple of price spikes through the day – such as this spike to the Market Price Cap (MPC) of $13,100/MWh (formerly known as VOLL) snapped from the newly released NEM-Watch version 9:
Paul was one of the founders of Global-Roam in February 2000. He is currently the CEO of the company and the principal author of WattClarity. Writing for WattClarity has become a natural extension of his work in understanding the electricity market, enabling him to lead the team in developing better software for clients.
Before co-founding the company, Paul worked as a Mechanical Engineer for the Queensland Electricity Commission in the early 1990s. He also gained international experience in Japan, the United States, Canada, the UK, and Argentina as part of his ES Cornwall Memorial Scholarship.
Based on forecasts NEMMCO had been providing through their PASA process, we expected that it might prove that this week would deliver huge demand levels, and high prices.
Not to disappoint, the market did deliver high levels of demand in all regions:
(a) Peak demand levels were reduced somewhat from the huge levels the previous week in Victoria and South Australia;
(b) Demand levels were also still building to the record level to be experienced the following week in NSW;
(c) Peak demand levels in Queensland were fairly steady (and high) for most weeks of summer.
(d) In combination, a new NEM-wide peak demand target of 30,994MW was set on Monday 23rd January.
In part 4 of this expanding Case Study of the unexpected price spike on Tuesday 13th Oct, linked to a large & sudden drop in output across 10 solar farms, we take a quick look at what happened at most of the QLD generators through this 10:00 trading period.
Our Managing Director spoke at the “Australian Energy & Utility Summit 08” in Sydney on Tuesday 22nd July 2008, touching on issues including the extremes of price volatility that were experienced over winter 2007.
2 Commentson "Summer’s not done yet – prices spike in humid Queensland"
What’s shown in the NEM-Watch snapshot above above are boundaries between NEM Regions, as distinct from state boundaries (though in practical terms it’s pretty much the same thing at present).
Hence, it’s more a matter that Canberra is tightly meshed in the NSW region so does not need its own pricing region – moreso than the fact that its electricity demand is relatively small.
For many years at the start of the NEM there was a Snowy Region between NSW and Victoria – as captured in this snapshot on 7th December 2005. Snowy was abolished from 1st July 2008 with part allocated to NSW and part in VIC.
Is the ACT too small to be included ?
Thanks for the question, Keith
What’s shown in the NEM-Watch snapshot above above are boundaries between NEM Regions, as distinct from state boundaries (though in practical terms it’s pretty much the same thing at present).
Hence, it’s more a matter that Canberra is tightly meshed in the NSW region so does not need its own pricing region – moreso than the fact that its electricity demand is relatively small.
For many years at the start of the NEM there was a Snowy Region between NSW and Victoria – as captured in this snapshot on 7th December 2005. Snowy was abolished from 1st July 2008 with part allocated to NSW and part in VIC.
Does this answer your question?
Paul