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'
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.
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.
Allan O'Neil digs through historic FCAS enablement and utilisation levels to examine whether there is an increasing trend in recent years.
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.
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...
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).
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.
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 at Liddell, and one at...
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.
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).
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 quarter. Table Setting As context,...
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 in Queensland and NSW, a...
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.
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 start understanding events like this...
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 stayed on – just. The...
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.
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
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.
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.