A shorter and shallower bout of low IRPM on Wednesday evening 19th June 2024

There were a number of SMS alerts this evening, triggered by IRPM dropping below 15% for most dispatch intervals between 17:50 and 18:40 on Wednesday evening 19th June … but it was not as deep, or as long, as what happened on Monday 17th June or Tuesday 18th June … hence as per expectations in this earlier forecast.

Here’s a snapshot of the 17:50 dispatch interval in NEMwatch at the start of the run:

2024-06-19-at-17-50-NEMwatch-screenshot

What’s notable in that snapshot includes:

1)  NEM-wide Instantaneous Reserve Plant Margin at 14.46%

2)  NEM-wide ‘Market Demand’ already up at 32,092MW

3)  From a VRE perspective:

(a)  Large Solar at close to 0MW

(b)  Wind yield just under 2,000MW … so better than was the case on Tuesday

4)  In this dispatch interval, the only interconnector constrained was Basslink.

5)  For the third evening in a row, despite the tight supply-demand balance, prices did not go ballistic.

… which is, in large part, due to the lack of intra-regional transmission constraints on the mainland (i.e. ensuring competition between generators in different regions).

Here’s a tabular run of NEM-wide IRPM, with the range of dispatch intervals under 15% highlighted … noting two in there were just above 15%:

2024-06-19-at-19-25-NEMwatch-IRPM

In particular note:

1)  Lowest point this evening for NEM-wide IRPM was 18:00 down at 13.85%; whilst

2)  Highest point for NEM-wide ‘Market Demand’ was 18:15, up at 32,262MW … so higher than seen on either on Monday 17th June or Tuesday 18th June.

That’s all for now.


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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