Dispatch Price spikes above $12,000/MWh in VIC and SA today

A brief article this afternoon to document the price spike above $12,000/MWh in the 15:50 dispatch interval (which equates to 16:50 local time in Melbourne and 16:20 local time in Adelaide.

Here’s what was captured in our NEMwatch v10 entry-level dashboard at the time:

2018-12-12-at-15-50-NEMwatch-spikeVICandSA

No time for much more today, but will also include the snapshot tweeted earlier (at 15:20) from ez2view which shows some of the contributing factors in more detail:

2018-12-12-at-15-20-ez2view-Victoria

As noted on both images, there was more than one contributing factor (there almost always is!), including – in no particular order:

Factor 1 = 3 large coal units offline;

Factor 2 = Relative lack of wind (including a fairly rapid drop of about 160MW after the price spike, interestingly)

Factor 3 = Limitations on imports from NSW, which also affected Murray output, and output from Southern Hydro;

Factor 4 = Hot weather supporting demand (though nowhere near extreme levels)

Summer’s heating up – literally, and figuratively …


About the Author

Paul McArdle
One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.

3 Comments on "Dispatch Price spikes above $12,000/MWh in VIC and SA today"

  1. Factor 5 = Early celebration of the 20th birthday of NEM commencement (13/12/1998)?

  2. Any commentary on the Tesla battery (Hornsdale) and it’s inability to reduce prices in SA during this event?

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