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.
Articles by Allan O'Neil
A closer look at coal-fired generation availability
Tweet at your own peril A quick mea culpa: after squinting at an ez2view layout early this morning I dashed off a tweet suggesting that six of AGL Energy’s eleven coal-fired generation units were offline – three at Bayswater, two…
Expect the unexpected – It’s the NEM after all
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, returns to WattClarity with this review of southern region prices on Monday 31st January 2022 to highlight one example of counterprice flows on the VIC to NSW interconnector.
A Quick Tour of the 2021 ESOO
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes an initial look at some of the highlights included in the AEMO’s Electricity Statement of Opportunities for 2021 (a 10-year forecast for what might unfold in the future of the NEM).
A Second Serving of the Q2 Elephant
For a second portion of Q2 “elephant eating”, I’ll look in some detail at the dynamics of an early instance of spot price volatility in Queensland, because many drivers turn out to be similar across other volatile intervals in the…
Eating the NEM’s Q2 Elephant – An Appetizer
An old adage runs that to eat an elephant, it’s best to proceed in small servings. With a very eventful Q2 in the NEM not yet finished, the number of headline events is already large enough – unexpected price volatility…
Plenty of things went wrong in Queensland last Tuesday, but some very important things went right
Whilst there were many things that went wrong on Tuesday 25th May 2021 (last week), guest author Allan O’Neil highlights that there were at least 4 things that went right – contributing to a much less severe outcome than would otherwise have been the case.
Sequence of Events on 25 May – A Very Short & Partial Visual Guide
Normally this would be part of a much more complete article adding to WattClarity’s growing coverage of the major power system events in Queensland following the incident at Callide C Power Station. However I for one find it easier to…
Down 55% – but not out
Over 2,000 MW – or around 55% – of South Australia’s firm supply capacity was unavailable last Friday evening (March 12, 2021), along with virtually all of its large-scale renewable supply (a further 1,800 MW or so) but the lights…
New Sources of Strength
Guest author Allan O’Neil puts together an in-depth explainer about system strength and looks at the current approach to system strength management in South Australia, its impacts and the imminent installation of synchronous condensers on the SA grid.
Transition Fooled?
Through the lens of the GSD2020, Allan O’Neil looks at the much-discussed role of gas-fired generation in the ‘energy transition’ of the NEM’s generation sector
Constraint Case Study Followup – Early outcomes of the new “X5 constraint”
On 25th November, guest author Allan O’Neil examined the ‘X5 Constraint’. Two weeks of operation have passed, so now Allan reviews some of what’s happened.
Case Study – How to interpret a new NEM constraint and guess what it might do
Given the great interest in the new ‘X5 constraint’, guest author, Allan O’Neil, has invested some time to pick the new constraint equation to understand (and then explain) what it is, how likely it will be to bind, and who is likely to be affected.
What’s “Primary Frequency Response” and why does it matter anyway?
Paul McArdle recently drew my attention to a short Twitter thread started by David Osmond on the arcane topic of NEM system frequency behaviour: At Paul’s invitation I’ve dived further into this issue to fill in some background, provide…
ESOO 2020 – What a difference a year makes
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes a look at the AEMO’s 2020 ESOO to unpick the reason for the differences in outlook (and the sensationalised news headlines) compared to 2019 ESOO.
Observing Easter Saturday, a little belatedly
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, invests some time to explore a number of different aspects of Easter Saturday (11th April 2020), each noteworthy in their own right (including low demand, high percentage share renewables, negative prices and dynamic bidding)
ICYMI – COAG EC flags reliability framework changes
Guest author, Allan O’Neil tries to piece together further detail of what is intended with the apparent tightening of the Reliability Standard (which has sat at 0.002% USE for many years).
Surviving on the island – again
Another islanding event separated the SA region from the rest of the NEM yesterday (Monday, 2nd of March). Allan O’Neil investigates what happened before the event and possible causes.
Don’t Forget About FCAS!
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes a look at what’s happened in the (islanded) market for FCAS services in South Australia over the past two weeks with Heywood out of service. He notes:
“generators in SA as a group would have paid out roughly twice in contingency raise FCAS costs what they earned from selling energy”
January 31 Followup – How did the lights stay on in South Australia?
Guest author, Allan O’Neil delves further into understanding what happened in response to the transmission tower failures on 31st January 2020 that sent system frequency in South Australia and led to a large reversal of flows.