Also released on the day, but belatedly noting here, was a 18-page report by REE (Red Eléctrica, the sole transmission system operator (TSO) for the Spanish electricity system) published on the “Blackout in Spanish Peninsula Electrical System on 28th of April 2025” .
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.
A year ago we reviewed the market outcomes of wholesale demand response (WDR) in the NEM. It’s been 2 years now, providing a new milestone from which to review participation and impact. Can we say yet, whether the mechanism is a square peg in a round hole?
Whilst we’re waiting to see where ‘Market Demand’ lands for Friday 24th January 2025 (we might report that later), I was curious in terms of supply-side performance of units over the past 4 days in Queensland – including the extreme demand period of Wednesday 22nd January 2025…
It seems all renewables were operating in constant power factor mode (general practice as per FERC and ENTSO-E in US and Europe is to control to unity power factor according one AI site) They did not participate in dynamic voltage control mode and hence did not do much to help with the overvoltages. The full non confidential Spanish gov report recommends that market rules be changed to allow renewables to be remunerated for taking part in dynamic voltage control. One wonders if the blackout would have been avoided if the renewables had been in this mode.
It seems all renewables were operating in constant power factor mode (general practice as per FERC and ENTSO-E in US and Europe is to control to unity power factor according one AI site) They did not participate in dynamic voltage control mode and hence did not do much to help with the overvoltages. The full non confidential Spanish gov report recommends that market rules be changed to allow renewables to be remunerated for taking part in dynamic voltage control. One wonders if the blackout would have been avoided if the renewables had been in this mode.