economic withholding of capacity


Two alternate theories of why capacity was withdrawn

Second (linked) article this evening, spelling out the two theories we're aware of with respect to why some participants might have withdrawn capacity from the NEMDE dispatch/pricing run in June 2022 - leading to the AEMO Suspending the Market.





July in the NEM (a review of 10 years of history)

One of 12 articles on the months past in the NEM. Analysis of July has revealed that the peak NEM-wide demand for the past 3 years has occurred in winter - and has been significantly higher than the peak summer demand.


June in the NEM (a review of 10 years of history)

One of 12 articles on the months past in the NEM. June has brought us several cases of "economic witholding of capacity" - particularly in 2002, and in 2007 the NEM had a very interesting week in which the IRPM plunged to its lowest level...


January in the NEM (a review of 10 years of history)

One of 12 articles on the months past in the NEM. For January we revisit events such as the fires at Moomba in 2004 (which curtailed gas supplies from central Australia); and the blackout on 16th January 2007 which drove the price to VOLL in...


Analysis of price volatility in the QLD region over summer 2007-08

Our Managing Director was asked to speak at the "Queensland Energy" conference in Brisbane on Wednesday 12th March - specifically addressing the topic of price volatility in the NEM. To provide the basis of discussion during the conference, we focused our analysis solely on Queensland...



11th January 2007 – first spike in demand above 30,000MW

There was a temperature-driven spike in demand across the NEM later in the week beginning Sunday 7th January - culminating in the summer's first demand peak above 30,000MW (on Thursday 11th January). On this occasion, the spot price spiked above $1000/MWh in Queensland, NSW, Snowy...



21st November 2006 – demand spike in NSW

There was a temperature-driven spike in demand in NSW on Tuesday 21st November 2006. These sweltering temperatures combined with bushfires to cause localised blackouts in the Sydney city area, as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald in the article "Power jitters as heat bites".



24th February 2006 – price spikes in Victoria

Demand in Victoria peaked again, bringing with it high prices in Victoria and (to a lesser extent) South Australia. Indeed, the demand experienced in Victoria (on Friday 24th February) exceeded the previous high level of 8,552MW for summer, set in January 2006. Our analysis looked...


Weekly summary of events in Summer 2005-2006

Summer 2005-06 saw Australians sweltering in temperatures 40 degrees and above. In the National Electricity Market, this led to new peaks in demand and (given the tight supply/demand balance) delivered high (and volatile) spot market pricing. Here we have compiled a weekly summary of events...