High prices in NSW eventuate early, and briefly, on Tue 3rd Dec 2024 as Collector-Marulan 330kV outage invoked

Earlier this morning, Paul wrote about a long run of high prices forecast in NSW this afternoon, coinciding with the ‘N-CTMN_4_WG_CLOSE’ constraint set being invoked – starting today and scheduled to end on the 14th of December.

From the 11:40 dispatch interval this morning, we saw a run of four intervals where the NSW price spiked above $10,000/MWh as seen in the screenshot below.

The NSW price spiked up to near the market cap for four intervals between 11:40 and 11:55 this morning (NEM time).

Source: ez2view’s Trading Prices Widget

Prices in NSW have since pulled back, with P5 forecasted prices for the next hour at more typical levels. A closer inspection of several of our ez2view widgets shows a bit more detail into what was happening within the region at the time.

A view of the NSW schematic for the 11:40 dispatch interval.

Source: ez2view’s NSW Schematic widget

Our new Congestion Map prototype shows a very distinct congestion divide in NSW, as at the 11:40 dispatch interval

Source: ez2view’s Congestion Map Prototype widget

 

The NEM Map widget – shown here for the 11:40 dispatch interval – shows interconnector flows and prices.

Source: ez2view’s NEM Map widget

As always, there are many things happening at once… but worth noting a few dynamics that catch our attention at first glance:

  • Very negative local price adjustments for wind farms around the Goulburn area (i.e. with connection points on or near the Collector to Marulan 330kV line)
  • QNI and VNI flowing at southerly limits
  • A counter-price flow from NSW to VIC
  • Not shown in screenshots, but “NRM_NSW1_VIC1” (a negative residue management constraint), then clamped at the 11:50 dispatch interval
  • Tumut 3 switched on from 0MW to 763MW at the 11:35 dispatch interval

At the time of writing (12:45pm NEM time), the current P30 price forecasts are showing the NSW up near $17,500/MWh between 16:00 and 20:00 today, with a forecast LOR1 condition currently appearing for the period between 14:00 and 16:00.

We will be keeping an eye on how the situation evolves.


About the Author

Dan Lee
Dan Lee first started at Global-Roam in June 2013. He has departed (and returned) for a couple of stints overseas in that time, but rejoined our team permanently in late 2019. More recently, Dan's focus has been on growing his understanding of the market and developing his analytical capabilities. He is currently enrolled in the Master of Sustainable Energy program at the University of Queensland.

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