Australian Government vows to cut its emissions by 62 to 70 per cent by 2035
On Thursday 18th September 2025, the much-awaited announcement has been made about our climate targets for 2035.
Articles by Paul McArdle
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.
ESIG Report ‘Testing the Performance of Grid-Forming Resources’ released
Today we received notification from ESIG of the release of their report ‘Testing the Performance of Grid-Forming Resources’.
Belatedly highlighting the AEMO’s ‘Technical Review of the NEM Frequency Control Landscape’ from July 2025
Back in July 2025 we saw the AEMO had released this ‘Technical Review of the NEM Frequency Control Landscape’ … but are only noting this here now.
Oliver Nunn (from Endgame Analytics) illustrates how wind droughts are ‘a thing’
Returning for the second day of CEC QCES in the 'Long Duration Energy Storage' Oliver Nunn shared more insights from the Endgame modelling.
CleanCo modelled results of one scenario in a year late in the next decade
Flagging two charts that Rimu talked through to sum up some of the observations he made about some modelled results for some (unstated) year late in the next decade.
Changed operational profiles for Swanbank E and Wivenhoe (CleanCo assets)
From the CEC QCES 2025 was this pair of charts that Rimu Nelson (from CleanCo) presented to illustrate the vastly different operating profiles for Swanbank E and Wivenhoe pumped hydro.
Some snippets, from the ‘Long Duration Energy Storage’ session on day 2 of CEC QCES 2025
A short article to wrap up some of the content delivered in the Long Duration Energy Storage session at the CEC's QRES 2025.
From the ‘Operating in the NEM’ session on day 1 of CEC QCES 2025
One of the other sessions at CEC QRES that was of interest was the 'Operating in the NEM' session, from which we'll look to share more.
Update to Constraint Violation Penalty (CVP) Factors – effective 19th September 2025
Referencing AEMO's MN129117 published Tuesday 16th September 2025 with respect to this Friday 19th September 2025.
Six different lenses to view the ESOO 2025 … giving wildly different perspectives
About 4 weeks ago the 2025 ESOO was released. In this article we highlight 3 x 2 different ways this might be viewed - and note some other dimensions not considered.
‘we’re moving fast, but not fast enough’
Also featuring in the (perhaps misnamed) 'Faster than Forecast' session was David Dixon from Rystad - here's two things that jumped out to me.
‘the ISP Step Change Scenario is divorced from reality’
A short note about some comments made by Oliver Nunn during the 'Faster than Forecast' session at Queensland Clean Energy Summit on Mon 15th Sept 2025.
The ‘Faster than Forecast’ session in the afternoon of day 1 CEC’s QCES 2025
I thought it was worth noting a couple of observations following the afternoon session at day 1 of Queensland Clean Energy Summit, titled ‘Faster than Forecast’.
Two big climate-related documents for Australia released on Monday 15th September 2025
Whilst attending day 1 of the CEC’s ‘Queensland Clean Energy Summit 2025’ yesterday we noticed the release of the Climate Risk Assessment, and the Adaptation Plan
Frequency drop on Thursday evening 11th Sept 2025 with Tallawarra B trip
A quick article to explore a frequency drop on Thursday evening 11th September 2025.
Will I see you at the inaugural ‘NEMdev’ conference in Brisbane on Tue 7th and Wed 8th October 2025?
Worth a short note to point readers here to the current details about the conference – which is to be held in Brisbane on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th October 2025.
3.5 months after the turbine fire at Bulgana Wind Farm, we take an updated look
Combining together a bundle of different metrics related to the 'availability' of a wind farm, we take a look at what's happened at Bulgana Wind Farm over the past ~25 months.
The new ‘V_NWVIC_GFT1_750’ constraint equation binds, on Wednesday evening 10th September 2025
A short article to look at the first instance of the new ‘V_NWVIC_GFT1_750’ constraint equation binding - on Wednesday evening 10th September 2025 (not 36 hours after it had first been introduced).
Newport Power Station running, with Yallourn’s yips yielding 1 unit operations
We noticed Bruce Mountain’s comments on LinkedIn about Newport power station running overnight, so had a look in ez2view.
Noting the NERC Alert ‘Large Load Interconnection, Study, Commissioning, and Operations’
A quick note to call attention to this recent alert from NERC with respect to ‘Large Load Interconnection, Study, Commissioning, and Operations’