Articles by Paul McArdle

One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.





Impact of the GFC on the NEM?

Out of curiosity, we have performed some analysis of the extent to which the GFC has had an impact on the level of consumption of electricity across the NEM.



A brief look at peak NEM-Wide Demand over recent winters

This weekend, we have prepared this analysis of the entries we received for our “Peak Demand Forecaster” competition for winter 2009.

In conjunction with this analysis, we thought it would be of interest to also incorporate this chart (generated from a BETA version of the NEM-Review v6 software package) to highlight how the peak NEM-Wide demand unfolded over the previous winters…



Price cap lifted, and Tassie price spikes again

We reported previously that a price cap was invoked in Tasmania on Tuesday 16th June because the Cumulative Price Threshold was reached. In official terminology, this was an Administered Price Period (APP). At 04:00AM this morning, NEMMCO released a market notice advising the market that the APP had been lifted…


Tassie hits the Cumulative Price Threshold

For only the third occasion in the 10 1/2 years that the NEM has been operational, the Cumulative Price Threshold (CPT) has been reached. Yesterday evening, the CPT was reached in the Tasmanian region.



A review of recent winters in the NEM

For those who weren’t aware, Winter 2009 has seen us offer our “Who’s the Best Demand Forecaster in the NEM” challenge – as a chance for the market to redeem itself, following what happened in summer 2008-09 (when the market surprised us all).


Prices Surge in QLD and NSW as Demand Climbs

We noted yesterday (Wednesday 10th June) that NEM-wide demand climbed past 32,000MW for the first time this winter.

The following evening saw demand climb to similar levels (a peak of 32,054MW at 18:20 – so 35MW higher than the previous night). However the situation on Thursday night was different in two key ways…








Earth Hour

“Earth Hour” was a concept developed by the WWF to promote awareness of the risks of climate change. It first ran just in Sydney in 2007, and generated considerable interest, on both sides of the fence – with both climate…


Earth Hour 2007 – Impact on Australia’s National Electricity Market

Since the first event in Sydney, 2007, Earth Hour has been held at the same time on two successive years, with an increasing number of locations around the world participating – and still continues to galvanise commentary by supporters and detractors alike. Following the conclusion of Earth Hour 2009, out of interest we thought we’d have a closer look at what happened in Australia’s National Electricity Market over the period of Earth Hour 2007.