A review of the high demand periods over summer 2017/18 highlights the important contribution renewable generation is making to meeting peak demand and addressing the reliability of the power system.
Understanding the FCAS response by all generators when a unit trips in the NEM. A detailed look at the Loy Yang A unit trip in December 2017 and the contribution of the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
As NEM wind power plants progressively work towards implementing FCAS, the criticality of ensuring that the power system either a) takes account of the variability in the wind forecasts coming from the wind power plants in the coming 5-7 minutes and follows the wind direction, or b) sets an appropriate dispatch level to ensure wind variability is minimized, becomes even more important for market and power system operators.
Understanding the difference between blackouts, generator trips and intermittent generation and how these events are managed.
Upgrading our existing coal thermal fleet to increase efficiency and flexibility could provide a cost-effective opportunity to add dispatchable capacity and lower the overall carbon intensity of our electricity sector.
Our guest author, Allan O’Neil, poses a number of questions about the recently proposed “National Energy Guarantee” (NEG)
Our guest author, Rob Davis, looks at what might emerge for summer 2017-18 given the La Nina outlook, and prior distributions of Cooling Degree Days for Victoria and South Australia
Following from my August update, here’s two developments we have seen in relation to retail & networks regulation.
Some initial analysis by our guest author, Allan O’Neil, about what AEMO’s Statement of Opportunities 2017 is saying in terms of this coming summer 2017-18
A brief explainer of what “Unserved Energy” (or USE) actually means, in the context of the AEMO “Electricity Statement of Opportunities 2017” (ESOO) released this week.
Some thoughts from guest author, Connor James, about “what’s next” in response to energy user concerns about high and escalating prices.
Following Wednesday’s article by Paul McArdle on WattClarity, we’ve reviewed the (very cloudy) weather patterns for Friday 19th May 2017, and the accuracy of Solcast’s predictions of a day of low solar PV output
Our guest author, Allan O’Neil, posts an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of an increasingly popular metric – the LCOE (or Levellised Cost of Energy)
The energy supply industry is now a case study of major disruption and this is causing chaos. We are now witnessing the simultaneous high prices in electricity and gas – importantly at the commodity level – not network driven this time – although that just changed with the AER loss – more petrol on the fire.
A closer look at AEMO’s actions during a period of high windfarm output in SA last week
The South Australian Blackout of 28th September 2016 is not as simple as it looks.
Tight import limits on the Heywood interconnector and a lull in wind output saw price volatility return to South Australia earlier this week
Generators used to consider the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM) FCAS causers pays factors (CPF), used to allocate FCAS regulation costs across the market, as an obscure and unimportant technically challenging curiosity. Since 2014, the cost of FCAS regulation services for generators has increased from just under $5 million per year to greater than $60 million for 2016 and now has the attention of all of the generators, especially if their portfolio includes generation assets in regions with a lack of FCAS regulation providers and high prices such as South Australia.
The National Electricity Market (NEM) is designed to operate at 50 Hz. Frequency deviation occurs when generation and load are mismatched. It is important in a lightly meshed and long network such as the NEM to maintain tight frequency control and that frequency response is available throughout the network.
Ancillary Services Matter! No longer just realm of electrical engineer or energy trading boffins, ancillary services (and particularly Frequency Control Ancillary Services or FCAS which will concentrate on today) have become front and centre in so many ways that barely a day goes by without market observers referring to grid stability, inertia or frequency management.