New FCAS resources dominate enabled levels in 2024
Using the latest GSD – GSD2024 – we take the opportunity to reflect on FCAS enablement and how enabled levels are changing between technology types.
contingency FCAS
Last Friday’s large and (mysterious) apparent drop in NSW ‘Market Demand’ (part 3) … what helped restrain frequency?
Friday 31st January 2025 (appeared to) experienced a very large drop in demand in NSW in a single dispatch interval – but we’re now suspecting some form of data/operational glitch. However we wonder, if there was ~1,000MW more energy injected into the grid than required over a sustained period, what stopped the frequency flying through the roof?
Very fast FCAS, 2024 in review
A 2024 review of the trend in the very fast FCAS services captures enablements, availabilities and costs.
A quick look at spikes of Contingency Raise FCAS price in QLD on 9th, 10th and 11th October 2024
A quick snapshot of some volatility in Contingency Raise FCAS Prices in QLD spanning Wednesday 9th October 2024, Thursday 10th October 2024, Friday 11th October 2024.
NEM Mainland Frequency drops below the NOFB, on Tuesday 12th November 2024
A quick article recording the drop of NEM Mainland Frequency below the lower bound of the NOFB on Tuesday morning 12th November 2024.
Big Battery Revenues in the NEM Presentation from All-Energy 2024
Alex Leemon of Gridcog delivered this presentation about Big Battery Revenues in the NEM at All-Energy in Melbourne last week.
Regulation FCAS Costs in 2023
Following a presentation with the CEC, Linton shared some insights into FCAS Regulation costs for wind and solar units over last calendar year.
GSD 2023 Uncovers Features in FCAS Enablement and Bidding
The release of GSD2023 supports a deep dive into its 10-year FCAS history section. We inspect three units of differing technology and make use of the data extract to uncover trends in participation.
Very fast FCAS markets continue to grow
Six observations from a chart summarising how capacity, availability and volumes enabled have changed over the early phase of the very fast FCAs markets, since commencement on October 9, 2023.
Challenges with a global-only FCAS requirement
The very fast FCAS markets started on 9 October 2023 and now a Basslink outage presents a confusing situation for required and enabled levels.
Very fast raise service to be expanded
The requirement for the very fast raise contingency service is set to increase to 100 MW. We review availability and bids to consider the impact.
AGL (Bayswater and Loy Yang A) fined for inability to supply FCAS services
An article in the Australian this morning alerted me to yesterday’s Federal Court ruling against AGL Energy for not supplying contingency FCAS services (from Bayswater and Loy Yang A) when enabled by NEMDE. Here’s a quick look…
Very Fast FCAS – a week in review
The new 1-second FCAS markets have been operational since the 9th October. We take a look to find out how it has fared.
Measurement timeframes for Raise Contingency FCAS … from the MASS Version 8
Because we’ll be referring back to it in future, we’ve lifted out Figure 8 from the MASS version 8 (p36/39) and included it here in this belated (and back-dated) article
Very Fast Raise and Lower FCAS markets to start on 9 October 2023
Very Fast FCAS, because it operates at a faster timescale, can arrest the rise or fall in frequency more rapidly than the current fast service and therefore provides an avenue to mitigate the costs of needing to procure increasing levels of the existing fast service. The markets (raise and lower) are going live on 9 October 2023.
Enablement of ‘MaxAvail’ in the Bid for Semi-Scheduled units to go live (Mon 7th or Tue 8th Aug 2023) … and other enhancements in future
2 x AEMO Market Notices this afternoon prompt this article about four upcoming Market Enhancements … with the first to planned to commence from next Monday 7th August 2023
First night of living on an island … with SA disconnected from the rest of the NEM
Third article for Sunday 13th November 2022 – this one taking a quick look at some pricing activity in the ENERGY market overnight.
Diverse generator responses to illusive FCAS prices on Wednesday 10th August 2022
The market volatility on Wednesday 10th August 2022 turned out to be illusive. We review unit output by fuel type to study how different generator groups responded on the day (in aggregate) finding increases, decreases and patterns in between.
Case Study of Wednesday 10th August 2022 – Part 1 (Response of Wind Farms)
Walking through some of the responses I can see in 19 of 67 Wind Farm units on Wednesday 10th August 2022 … when a software glitch delivered extreme contingency FCAS prices across all regions (though they were subsequently revised down).
Enabling FCAS at Musselroe Wind Farm – Information Session this Wednesday 29th Sept (15:00-16:30)
Today (Mon 27th Sept) we were alerted to this Virtual Information Session on Wednesday 29th September that some of our readers will be interested in (Enabling FCAS at Musselroe Wind Farm)