Analytical Challenge – remembering that it’s impossible to know motive (but does not stop us guessing)
Highlighting the temptation to ascribe motivation to others - despite the fact that we understand that we can never know for sure.
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.
Recapping a shaky week for the supply-demand balance in the NSW region last week (Mon 4th June to Fri 8th June 2018)
The start of some analysis that helps to identify the variety of factors that combined to give a shaky balance between supply and demand in NSW last week.
Electricity demand stopped declining after 2014 (on a NEM-wide, Annual Average basis)
A comment made by TransGrid at the Energy Networks 2018 conference today jolted me to update my (somewhat) outdated paradigm of declining demand.
Winter 2018 in the NEM
A collection of articles about events that occurred through winter 2018 in the NEM (i.e. from 1st June to 31st August 2018)
AEMO issues LOR2 warning for South Australia for next Thursday, 31st May
Yesterday (Thu 24th May) AEMO issued a Low Reserve Condition notice (at LOR2 level) for South Australia next Thursday 31st May. We take a quick look....
An updated look at daily curtailment of aggregate wind farm output across South Australia
This morning over on Twitter, I was pulled into a discussion that had started with respect to volume of wind energy curtailed in South Australia: The genesis...
Helping our clients make sense of (and grasp the opportunities in) the AEMO’s new MT PASA data sets
A brief first look at AEMO's new MT PASA data sets - as we push forward in the next upgrade of our ez2view software to help our clients...
The “Solar Correlation Penalty” has already arrived in the NEM
Already we are seeing the highly correlated output of solar PV deliver interesting challenges for the NEM - both to the project proponents themselves, and also to the...
A timely reminder of the need for *much* more diversity in wind harvest patterns
Alerted by our NEMwatch dashboard, I delve into the data and see a scary degree of correlation between the (very low) output of wind farms in south-east South...
Network outage, and low wind, combine to drive spot price volatility in the SA region on Thursday 26th April
An unexpected network outage in the south-east of South Australia restricts supplies from Victoria at a time of low wind supply in South Australia and results in the...
An explainer about electricity demand [take 1]
Following from a steady stream of questions we receive in relation to a range of our products (but in particular with respect to "the RenewEconomy Widget") we've invested...
Just because a company wears a “green halo”, that does not mean it can disrespect its potential customers [UPDATED]
An advertisement seen on TV in recent days from a (relatively) new entrant in the energy sector reinforces, to me, the need for the energy sector more broadly...
Autumn 2018 in the NEM
A collection of articles about things we see occurring in the NEM.
Queensland region sees a new record peak Scheduled Demand – at 18:50 on Monday 12th February
Queensland experienced a new record for Scheduled Demand for electricity today - but what's particular staggering is how late in the day it happened!
Available Generation reduction across Loy yang A and Loy Yang B over Sunday evening was only 420MW
A brief look at the numbers with the temporary coal supply issue affecting Loy Yang A and Loy Yang B overnight
High electricity demand forecast for Queensland – on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week
Looks like being an interesting day on Wednesday next week (14th February 2018) with high temperatures currently forecast for parts of both QLD and NSW
Victorian demand rises above 9,000MW – which (in combination with other factors) leads to a volatile day in the southern regions
On a day when high temperatures drove demand in Victoria above 9,000MW (and NEM-wide demand above 30,000MW) we saw some price volatility - with prices in VIC and...
Queensland’s Scheduled Demand for electricity topped 9,000MW today (Wed 31st Jan) for the first time in summer 2017-18
Electricity demand in Queensland today reached 9072MW in the 16:40 dispatch interval, passing 9,000MW for the first time this summer.
Sunday 28th January sees Victorian electricity demand (Scheduled, and Operational) above 9,000MW
Yesterday (Sunday 28th January) saw electricity demand (both Scheduled and Operational) above 9,000MW in the heat. Others have noted this was the highest-ever non-working day demand in Victoria,...
Villain #3 – those at either extreme of the Emotion-o-meter
It seems to us that the people at either extreme of the Emotion-o-meter are causing this energy transition to see-saw off the tracks. For this reason they are...