Villain no 6d – Diversity is not a magic wand
A few quick words, about the challenges inherent in assessing the benefits of diversity too superficially. It clearly does have some benefits, but it's not a Magic Wand.
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.
‘Maximising Value in the NEM’, with a particular focus on Large Solar Farms
On Thursday 21st May, Marcelle Gannon and Jonathon Dyson jointly shared a large number of insights and tips to help those interested in developing and/or operating Large Solar Farms in the NEM maximise the...
Reasonably widespread deviations delivers highest ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Wind’
This is the 3rd of 4 Case Studies to follow on from the main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings). In this case, let’s...
Case Study about Non-Conformance with Yarranlea Solar Farm on Friday 1st May 2020
Following on from the article posted on the day, here's a focused look at what can be seen in ('next day' public) data for Yarranlea Solar Farm on Friday 1st May 2020 - a...
Stanwell unit operation on 12th October 2019 delivers most negative ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’
This is the 2nd of 4 Case Studies to follow on from Tuesday’s main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings). In this case, let's...
Kogan Creek trip on 9th October 2019 delivers highest ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’
Following on from Tuesday's main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for 'all Coal' and 'all Wind' groupings), this is the first of 4 x Case Studies that look at each...
Balancing Supply and Demand …. in the fast approaching ‘NEM 2.0’ world
Recent invitations (from COAG Energy Council and AEMO) prompt some further analysis of the data set assembled for the GSD2019 in order to understand more about one of the challenges in balancing Supply and...
Aggregate wind production peaked above 5,000MW for the first time (NEM-wide) – on Friday 1st May 2020
Quick notes about a new peak in wind farm output across the NEM that occurred on Friday evening last week (1st May 2020).
Spot prices plunge in QLD, and may well remain underwater for the coming week
Three main factors contributed to the spot prices in Queensland dropping underwater today for a number of hours - with some factors suggesting this might be the pattern for the coming week...
AEMO releases its first* ‘Renewable Integration Study’ on 30th April 2020
An article today providing links to the 'Renewable Integration Study' which the AEMO released today, and also to the headline media coverage I have seen on my quick scan this morning.
Two papers released by COAG Energy Council are early stages in fleshing out ‘NEM 2.0’
Some brief initial thoughts, following the release of two discussion papers by the COAG Energy Council - the first on two-sided markets, and the second seeming to cover two different challenges (forward markets, and...
Careful with the ‘doomsday claims’ that COVID responses have (or will) massively reduced aggregate underlying electricity consumption in the NEM….
… because the evidence currently suggests that this is just not the case (in this article I explore and explain further)
Four units trip in Victoria on Easter Saturday
A quick look at Saturday 11th April (Easter Saturday) where there were major reductions in output at 4 units across Victoria - 3 coal units in the Latrobe Valley and the Macarthur Wind Farm...
Electricity demand as a Performance Metric, in the age of coronavirus
This started as a consideration of how applicable 'change of electricity demand' is as a general metric for communicating the impact of coronavirus (and measures taken to address it). However it is morphed into...
1st thoughts on possible impacts of COVID-19 on Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM)
Like everyone else, we're grappling with how COVID-19 will impact on us personally - and also in terms of what we do at work. Here's a few initial thoughts about the types of impacts...
Using the GSD2019 to explore the VALUE of Dispatchability
An article published by AEMC on the 'value of dispatchability' provided the spur to return to our intention of freely sharing insights gleaned from the Generator Statistical Digest 2019. Today's article highlighting the value...
Scheduled Demand in South Australia drops to levels not seen since the history of the NEM (excluding System Black)
Alarms in one of our NEMwatch dashboards alerted me to the plunging level of Scheduled Demand seen this afternoon in the the Victorian and South Australian regions of the NEM - a new record...
We’ve been killing New Entrants with kindness?
Last week saw more in a growing series of exits, and asset write-downs, amongst new entrants in the supply of renewable energy within the NEM. Today on WattClarity I ponder whether we have been...
Reviewing the ‘accelerated accidental experiment’ thrust on SA during the islanding (31st Jan to 17th Feb) – a 1st review
As time has permitted, I've invested some time to prepare this first stage of a review of what went on during the period from 31st Jan 2020 to 17th Feb 2020 - a period...
South Australia islanded again – Monday 2nd March at 12:00
Two weeks ago (Monday 17th February) a 'temporary fix' was put in place to reconnect SA with VIC following the transmission line outage that began on 31st January 2020. Well, we've islanded again today....