AEMO directs load shedding (following unplanned network outages) in NSW on Monday evening 8th July 2024

A very quick article for Tuesday morning referring back to three Market Notices from AEMO yesterday.

At 19:08, the AEMO published MN117321 as follows:

‘——————————————————————-
MARKET NOTICE
——————————————————————-

From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     08/07/2024     19:08:46

——————————————————————-

Notice ID               :         117321
Notice Type ID          :         LOAD SHED
Notice Type Description :         NEL 116 Direction
Issue Date              :         08/07/2024
External Reference      :         Load Shedding Direction in the NSW Region

——————————————————————-

Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

Load Shedding Direction in the NSW Region

AEMO has directed load shedding commencing at 1817 hrs 08/07/2024 in the NSW region to maintain  power system security.

The direction was issued under section 116 of the NEL, and was a clause 4.8.9 instruction under the NER.

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

——————————————————————-
END OF REPORT
——————————————————————-‘

… but note no further details provided about specifically why they needed load shedding?

At 19:34 the AEMO published MN117322 as follows:

‘——————————————————————-
MARKET NOTICE
——————————————————————-

From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     08/07/2024     19:34:37

——————————————————————-

Notice ID               :         117322
Notice Type ID          :         LOAD RESTORE
Notice Type Description :         NEL 116 Direction
Issue Date              :         08/07/2024
External Reference      :         Load Restoration Direction in the NSW Region

——————————————————————-

Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

Load Restoration Direction in the NSW Region

AEMO has directed load restoration commencing at 1930 hrs 08/07/2024 in the NSW region

The direction was issued under section 116 of the NEL, and was a clause 4.8.9 instruction under the NER.

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

——————————————————————-
END OF REPORT
——————————————————————-‘

Finally, at 21:58 the AEMO published MN117324 as follows:

‘——————————————————————-
MARKET NOTICE
——————————————————————-

From :              AEMO
To   :              NEMITWEB1
Creation Date :     08/07/2024     21:58:40

——————————————————————-

Notice ID               :         117324
Notice Type ID          :         LOAD RESTORE
Notice Type Description :         NEL 116 Direction
Issue Date              :         08/07/2024
External Reference      :         Cancellation – Load Restoration Direction in the NSW Region – 08/07/2024

——————————————————————-

Reason :

AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE

Cancellation – Load Restoration Direction in the NSW Region – 08/07/2024

Refer to AEMO Electricity Market Notice 117322
Load restoration as directed is complete. Direction cancelled from 2200 hrs 08/07/2024

Manager NEM Real Time Operations

——————————————————————-
END OF REPORT
——————————————————————-’

Nothing further at this point … but we are curious as to the why it was required?

PS1 … further information from AEMO

Apologies for the delay in adding in here … our friends at the AEMO have informed us of several things – including:

1)  Monday night’s load shedding was in northern NSW to manage an unplanned network outage

(a)  exactly which outage it was we don’t know for sure, at this point (though we have seen speculation elsewhere)

(b)  for instance there was the ‘unplanned outage of all 3 cables of Directlink’ ... which was:

i.  communicated in MN117323 at  19:41:53 (i.e. ~90 minutes after the direction for Load Shedding was given); and also

ii.  reflected inside NEMDE by the ‘N-X_MBTE_3’ constraint set from the 18:45 dispatch interval (but noting that load shedding was directed from 18:17, so 28 minutes beforehand).

2)  We understand that this is viewed as a ‘Reviewable Operating Incident’ under NER 4.8.15(a)(1)(v).

… as such, a preliminary report will be released next week.

PS2 … further information from others

There have also been updates from other sources, as well.  For instance:

1)  In Tom MacDonald’s comment below, he references three different unplanned network outages in NSW, and speculates possible contributions.  We’ll need to wait for further information from AEMO to really know.

2)  In Alex Cowie’s comment below, he points to this RenewEconomy article ‘Load shedding in NSW holiday spot after multiple transmission line trips’ which includes the following additional information:

‘Around 24,000 customers in northern NSW around Byron Bay went without power for more than an hour on Monday night after one of the main transmission lines tripped, causing the market operator to call for load shedding to keep the network stable.

A spokesman for the Australian Energy Market Operator said Transgrid’s 330 kV Lismore to Coffs Harbour line tripped earlier in the day, and load shedding was needed to secure network from soon after 6pm.

Essential Energy had to cut off power for about 24,000 customers in the area around Byron Bay, Lismore and Ballina after AEMO instructed Transgrid to shed a total of 40 megawatts of load.’

etc…

3)  There are also other comments on this LinkedIn update that was triggered when our article was first published.

i. Amongst those comments is a link to the news article ‘Northern Rivers blacked out as Essential Energy ‘sheds load’’ that provides more details…