Watt scarcity?
Guest author Allan O’Neil examines some recent episodes of price volatility (particularly 30th July to 5th August 2024) and whether they were driven by a shortage of supply, or other factors.
Articles by Allan O'Neil
With the benefit of hindsight – or who’d be an auto-bidder?
Following on from earlier articles about price volatility on Tue 30th July 2024 (particularly in South Australia), guest author Allan O’Neil takes a closer look at the operation of battery units in South Australia.
Missing megawatts and phantom generation
Seven days ago, AEMO notified the market of a Scheduling Error from 24th Jan 2024 to 7th March 2024. A client asked us what it meant – so guest author Allan O’Neil has helped to explore and explain.
Victorian renewable generation on 13 February 2024: One picture and a thousand (sorry, many more) words
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes us several steps further in understanding the events in Victoria on Tuesday 13th February 2024 – especially with respect to VRE (wind and solar) production.
Early observations from examining the AEMO’s four-second SCADA data from Tuesday afternoon
Allan O’Neil provides a couple of initial observations regarding Dundonnell Wind Farm and Loy Yang A from his first glance of at the 4-second SCADA data from the events in Victoria on Tuesday afternoon.
Victorian power system event 13 Feb 2024 13:08 – a few quick notes
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, adds some insights in a rapidly evolving situation on Tuesday afternoon 13th February 2024 in Victoria.
Summer 2023-24 demand – high or low?
Inspired (or provoked) by Paul’s earlier article noting ‘NEM-wide demand has been quite low through summer 2023-24 (at least to date)’, guest author Allan O’Neil takes a look at how aggregate consumption stacks up for this summer, compared to prior.
Out with a bang or a whimper? And a puzzle or two.
Guest author Allan O’Neil continues our series of posts on very low system demand levels in South Australia and Victoria on New Year’s Eve, with a few unresolved questions remaining
What’s happening around Wagga?
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes a detailed look at how VIC1-NSW1 transfer capability has been limited frequently due to constraints related to the 051 line in southern NSW, and what it means in terms of inter-regional settlements residue accumulations, market efficiency overall, and the energy transition.
An ESOO snippet – how effective are different technologies at enhancing reliability?
In his second article about the 2023 ESOO, guest author Allan O’Neil takes a look at what the AEMO has published with respect to various options for firming capacity to increase the reliability of aggregate supply to below the two thresholds (the Reliability Standard and the Interim Reliability Standard)
Stock up on candles?
Last Thursday (31st Aug 2023) the AEMO published the ESOO 2023, including forecasts of some possibility of unserved energy in Victoria and South Australia this coming summer 2023-24 (above the Interim Reliability Measure). Guest author Allan O’Neil takes a look.
Too Early to Say?
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, publishes some analysis for WattClarity on price and generation mix changes apparent in the NEM coincident with (but not wholly caused by) the closure of the last remaining units at Liddell Power Station.
Renewable curtailment – forced and not quite so forced
Inspired by the recent article by Tristan Edis (who referenced the GSD2022 in analysis of curtailment of some wind and solar farms), Allan O’Neil follows on with more analysis of the two main types of curtailment. Allan differentiates these as ‘forced curtailment’ and ‘economic offloading’
Liddell’s ghost stalks the market
During early morning Monday 1st May prices spiked in the NSW quite unexpectedly. Guest author Allan O’Neil takes us into the complexities of the EMMS and NEMDE to help us understand the mechanics of how this happened.
Bye X5, Hi X5
From 16th March 2023 the infamous ‘x5 constraint’ has been split into two. We quickly showed previously that the design of the Left Hand Side (LHS) does not vary. In today’s article, valued guest author Allan O’Neil takes a look at what is different.
Has adding wind and solar upped the need for FCAS in the NEM?
Allan O’Neil digs through historic FCAS enablement and utilisation levels to examine whether there is an increasing trend in recent years.
Investigating last Friday’s frequent frequency swings
Allan O’Neil provides an explainer about how small deviations in supply and demand are managed in the NEM, in order to help us understand the apparent swings in frequency that we noted in QLD last Friday.
Farewell Liddell
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes the release of the GSD2022 as an opportunity to take a look at the past 10 years of performance of the four-unit Liddell Power Station (one unit closed in 2022 and three to close soon in 2023), contrasting against two other black coal-fired stations.
FCAS driving the island?
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, contributes his first article with respect to the islanding event in South Australia of November 2022 (in this article taking a look at FCAS market outcomes in South Australia).
Stepping to suspension
With all regions of the NEM having been suspended by AEMO on Wednesday 15th June 2022, guest author Allan O’Neil takes an initial look at what’s visible in terms of operations in the NEM.