A brief look at NSW volatility at 18:10 on Monday 20th May 2024

Yesterday evening we briefly noted ‘Price volatility in NSW on Monday evening 20th May 2024’ with a snapshot of the 18:20 dispatch interval (NEM time).

This morning I was having a conversation with someone about some activity they had noted with the Queanbeyan BESS, which displayed very start-stop output profile even during the volatility.  So I said I would have a quick look (apologies that this is a bit quick-and-cryptic).

In doing so I am using a soon-to-be-released v9.9.3 ‘Transition Release’ of ez2view for the IESS changes:

1)  that notionally go live in the market on Monday 3rd June 2024

2)  but which will moreso start affecting our ez2view clients when the first bi-directional units start appearing (which we understand won’t be until the end of June 2024 at the earliest).

Here’s three screenshots in sequence, all time-travelled back to the 18:10 dispatch interval

The NSW Schematic + more

To set the scene, here’s the ‘NSW Schematic’ widget and others in the ez2view software, at 18:10 on Monday 21st May 2024:

With respect to the annotations:

1)  This is an early build (we’re testing internally) of what will be the ‘Transition Release’ for IESS;

2)  We’ve noted that Vales Point 6 was offline at this time, but returned to service overnight … a little earlier than expected.

3)  We’ve highlighted Crookwell 3 Wind Farm was not registered (in AEMO production systems) at the time of the snapshot above:

(a)  But hit AEMO production systems at 24:00 at the end of this day (i.e. at midnight this morning)

(b)  The 4-hour overlap to the end of the ‘yesterday’ Market Day was the cause of the AEMO bug (GR case ref #6723) referenced here

4)  The WattClarity reader this morning asked about the start-stop-start operating profile for Queanbeyan BESS highlighted.

The ‘Station Details’ widget

So drilling into the ‘Station Details’ widget in the ez2view software, at 18:10 on Monday 21st May 2024:

For this dispatch interval, we see that the unit is dispatched down to 0MW even though the RRP is high and the volume is bid down at the –$1,000/MWh Market Price Floor at the Regional Reference Node.  The reason for this is seen to be:

1)  The ‘N::N_CTYS_2’ constraint equation

2)  Which has driven the CPD Price down below –$1,000/MWh.

The ‘Station Details’ widget

Now frequent readers will recall that the ‘N::N_CTYS_2’ constraint equation has featured before in articles … such as with respect to Wednesday 8th May 2024 in ‘A quick look at the ‘N::N_CTYS_2’ constraint equation, with respect to Wednesday 8th May 2024’.

So clicking through to the ‘Constraint Dashboard’ widget in the ez2view software, we have some understanding of what we expect to find:

As indicated on the image, there are a fair number of units (including QBYNBG1) that are being ‘constrained down’ by the ‘N::N_CTYS_2’ constraint equation (possibly working in conjunction with other bound constraints).

That’s all for now …