guest author

How To Reduce Electricity Costs – Part 2

In the previous article on reducing electricity costs we looked at energy efficiency and the fact that the cheapest electricity is the electricity that you don’t consume. In this article we will look at how to pay less for the…


How To Reduce Electricity Costs – Part 1

We all know that electricity prices have escalated dramatically over the last couple of years. But did you know that it is possible to offset these increases and even achieve cost reductions in the face of increasing retail prices? Electricity…






When the NEM’s Largest Generating Unit Trips …

A follow-on to my earlier article of a couple weeks ago, looking at another instance where a team effort was required to counter a drop in system frequency following the loss of generation at a large power station (this time the single unit Kogan Creek power station – the largest single unit in the NEM).




Short term forecasting of wind power plant generation for the provision of ancillary services

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.



Grandfathers Axe or Low Hanging Fruit?

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.


No Guarantee of Success

Our guest author, Allan O’Neil, poses a number of questions about the recently proposed “National Energy Guarantee” (NEG)








Cost Confusion

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)