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...
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 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...
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...
When markets operate normally, a sharp rise in the price of any commodity triggers a boom in exploration, development and new supply. But this is not seeming to happen in response to high domestic...
Last Friday’s events took South Australia much closer to the brink of another Black System event than many seem to have realised
New South Wales recently experienced a severe heatwave, which saw parts of the state exceed 45°C. During this three day period, small solar PV (i.e. PV systems that are not registered as generators in...
NSW demand rose to a near-record high on Friday the 10th of February, and QLD soared to a new record demand on that Sunday, amidst an intense heatwave. While this heat-stressed our electricity markets...
Load shedding in South Australia on Wednesday 8 February and successive ‘close shaves’ in NSW and Queensland as the heatwave spread north have exposed serious weaknesses in the national electricity market (NEM).
A summary timeline of how last Friday’s “white knuckle ride” in NSW evolved, highlighting key events on the day.
Some thoughts by our guest author, about possible reasons why Engie did not bid full output of Pelican Point power station into AEMO on Wednesday 8th February (i.e. the time at which load shedding...
A look at the supply/demand fundamentals in South Australia and explaining why load shedding was initiated.
Hot weather in Adelaide and Melbourne driving an interesting outlook for Thursday
One of the more recent developments we’ve observed in the NEM is the downward trend in gas powered generation, raising concerns as to whether there is more pain to come for east coast industrial...
Very high demands in NSW and “more of the same” in Queensland saw significant price volatility yesterday, with the two states behaving like one larger NEM region
A volatile couple of days in Queensland, with demand response evident
Extremely hot weather in NSW and the NEM’s underappreciated “rail gauge mismatch” contributed to a sharp multi-state price spike during the afternoon peak