A 60% Instantaneous Reserve Plant Margin – even with plant out for maintenance

Posted by Paul McArdle Tuesday, September 23 2014 Topic: Spring 2014 in the NEM

With the release of the Energy Green Paper today (submissions due 4th November), in NEM-Watch currently we see a poignant reminder of one of the significant challenges facing the National Electricity Market moving forwards.

Despite the fact that it’s now outage season in the NEM, we see in the following snapshot from this afternoon that there’s almost 13,000MW of spare capacity currently available for use – amounting to a massive 60% Instantaneous Reserve Plant Margin.

2014-09-23-at-12-20-NEM-Watch-pricesindoldrums

It’s no wonder that spot prices are as low as they are shown to be.

I posted some thoughts recently about what this might mean (e.g. with respect to some alarmist predictions) and will continue thinking this through as time permits.

Like us, you could also use NEM-Watch to gain perspective on the challenges facing the NEM.  Run your free trial continuously for a week whilst reviewing the Green Paper?

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About the Author

Paul McArdle
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.

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