Spot price volatility in NSW and SA on Monday 1st May 2023

A couple people have contacted us to ask, so this article is hastily put together to mark the volatility we saw in several regions of the NEM today … but we’ll really need to leave until follow-on articles to explain the ‘why?’ in any level of detail.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the SMS alerts received through the day with prices in NSW and SA breaching the $1,000/MWh alert criteria:

2023-05-01-SMS-alerts-Price

We saw NSW volatility occur in the early hours of the morning, whilst SA volatility picked up around the time when Underlying Demand typically starts ramping up for the day.

 

(A)  A quick look at volatility in NSW

Using Time-Travel in ez2view, here’s a view of a number of widgets in a NSW-focused window to highlight some of what was happening in NSW at the 02:10 dispatch interval.

2023-05-01-at-02-10-ez2view-NSW

The ‘N>>NIL_33_34’ Constraint Equation is bound with a significant Marginal Value (and we can see many DUIDs flagged as affected by various constraints in the NSW Schematic), so we drill into the ‘Constraint Dashboard’ widget for a quick look:

2023-05-01-at-02-10-ez2view-N-NIL_33_34

In the snapshot above, have a look at the very low CPD Prices highlighted for a number of units.

The description of the constraint from the ‘Standing Data’ tab is as follows:

‘Out= Nil, avoid Bayswater to Liddell (33 or 34) O/L on loss of other Bayswater to Liddell (34 or 33), Feedback’

There’s obviously more involved here…

 

(B)  A quick look at volatility in SA

Here’s a snapshot of NEMwatch taken at the 07:00 dispatch interval, one of the ones seeing volatility in South Australia (dispatch/trading price up at $3,982.59/MWh):

2023-05-01-at-07-00-NEMwatch-SA-3982bucks

There’s a couple things readers should be able to notice in the above.

 

(C)  Explanations?

More detailed explorations (and explanations) will need to wait until later…


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.

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