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.







A twenty year review of Marginal Loss Factors

Last week the AEMO released a draft of the Marginal Loss Factors (MLFs) that would apply to both generation and loads connected to the NEM.  This page on the AEMO site links to more details. On that page, the AEMO…






A brief look back at reactions to negative prices in the 14:30 trading period on Friday 1st March 2019

Yesterday I noted what appeared to be trips of two solar farms – Gannawarra and Karadoc – within a single dispatch interval and coincident with a period of volatile prices. Also yesterday, Dylan McConnell flagged a drop in output at the brown coal plant around the same time, with some questions. With the benefit of access to yesterday’s bids, today I have a look at the 5 power stations (pending a broader review next week by guest author, Allan O’Neil).



A (preliminary) Intermediate Guide to How Prices are Set in the NEM

In the process of assembling a long-range data set on how much every single generator has contributed to the price of Energy in each Region of the NEM (which we’re doing for our Generator Report Card 2018) we’ve pulled some preliminary analysis together here of how many dispatch intervals since 1st January 2018 see the Price Setter files highlight instances of setting the price ranging:
from “Very Simple” (at Category 1)
… to “Very Complex” (at Category 5)