Apologies to readers here for what might seen a short (perhaps cryptic and unsatisfying) article that’s intended to augment the discussion in the deeper review of 2024 Q2.
Here’s a trend of calculated NEM-wide IRPM over a 9-day period in June 2024 …
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.
One of 12 articles on the months past in the NEM. Analysis of July has revealed that the peak NEM-wide demand for the past 3 years has occurred in winter – and has been significantly higher than the peak summer demand.
A later article reviewing how Cumulative Price in Queensland has jumped upwards this evening (towards the CPT) as a result of a solid four hours above $1,000/MWh.
Following from an alert to the situation provided by NEM-Watch, Duncan Hughes published an article “Power Price Jump in Eye of the Storm” that mentioned the extremely low levels of NEM-Wide Instantaneous Reserve Plant Margin (IRPM) that had occurred for a 60-minute period over both days.
1 Commenton "Trended NEM-wide IRPM over 9 days in June 2024"
Can someone outline how semi-sched and batteries are treated in this calculation please? For very little variation in Market Demand, the IRPM seems to be almost precisely out of phase with maximum generation. Not unsurprising, but if this IRPM is calculated assuming charged batteries and predicted wind then once you get down around 10% you really are only a hiccup away from a problem – particularly in a region unable to be supported via a transmission constrained market. Gets even more precarious if some of your assumed generation is coal that has been decommitted for a few days and is now cold.
Can someone outline how semi-sched and batteries are treated in this calculation please? For very little variation in Market Demand, the IRPM seems to be almost precisely out of phase with maximum generation. Not unsurprising, but if this IRPM is calculated assuming charged batteries and predicted wind then once you get down around 10% you really are only a hiccup away from a problem – particularly in a region unable to be supported via a transmission constrained market. Gets even more precarious if some of your assumed generation is coal that has been decommitted for a few days and is now cold.