A string of SMS notifications from our ez2view app this morning alerted us to some high prices that have stuck around throughout the day.

QLD price spikes to $9,500 at 10:40AM this morning

The big price spike so far today occurred at the 10:40 dispatch interval where the regional energy price hit $9,500. Since then, the energy price has been above $1,000 for most of the past two and a half hours.

QLD Trading Prices between the 10:00 and 12:30 dispatch intervals today, 4th July 2022.

Source: Trading Prices Widget within ez2view

Some causes for today’s high prices

Cloud coverage over almost all of the state’s east coast

The satellite image below shows the extent of cloud coverage over the eastern coast of Queensland today.

Satellite image of Queensland at 10:40am AEST this morning

Source: WeatherZone QLD Satellite

The cloud cover has had an effect on low output from the region’s utility-scale solar farms – the lowest midday reading in some months, from my initial scan of the data.

Total large solar output in QLD over the last two weeks

Source: Trends Widget within ez2view

Cold temperatures in the state’s South East

It was also a notably cold day in South East Queensland – the apparent temperature in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast was below 13 degrees even by midday. Higher up the ranges, Toowomba’s apparent temperature has been in the low single digits for most of the past 12 hours.

Apparent temperates for four major weather stations in South East Queensland over the past 24 hours

Source: Trends Widget within ez2view

The colder-than-normal temperatures combined with low rooftop solar output, would have contributed to daytime operational demand levels being higher than what has been seen lately. The operational demand at midday today was 7303MW. For comparison, operational demand was 4651MW at midday last Monday, and 5440MW the Monday before that.