Inspired by the price spike experienced this evening, I have spent a little time to put together the background to winters in the NEM.
This will be useful in understanding the context of any other events that occur this winter, and are analysed on WattClarity.
A graphical summary of a day when temperatures soared in NSW, dragging demand higher and (with the assistance of a relative shortage of supplies) also dragging prices to VOLL
Some quick notes about a price spike in QLD today.
Some pictorial records of a day when a new record demand was set in Queensland.
A snapshot of a higher demand day in NSW, driven by higher temperatures as they move eastwards
Some notes about the heatwave in SA and VIC, and what it means for the NEM
Some quick notes on what’s happened in the NEM today (17th) and yesterday (16th)
Some further analysis of the MT PASA and ST PASA forecasts for other regions of the NEM (SA, TAS, NSW and QLD) for the day of 29th January 2009 – when a new record NEM-wide demand was established.
A record of high demand in the QLD region on Thursday 10th December 2009
A quick look at how useful NEMMCO’s PASA forecasts were, prior to the record levels of demand seen across the NEM on Thursday 29th January 2009
A few snapshots and quick notes about a very hot spring day in the NEM, with demand soaring, IRPM dropping across the market, and prices at VOLL in NSW
A few brief notes about a hot day across the mainland, with demand levels high in each of the 4 mainland regions
A few snapshots of a hot day in QLD and NSW as the spring heatwave rolls east.
For only the 5th time in 11 years of NEM history (and the 3rd time for South Australia) four consecutive days of price spikes have forced the Cumulative Price to the Threshold, and AEMO has imposed price caps to prevent retailers from going bust.
Some quick notes about another price spike today in the South Australian region of Australia’s National Electricity Market
Summer 2008-09 is now well behind us, and there are a number of official reviews underway that will report back at some stage. Even so, we’ve been continuing to ponder a couple of things about what happened in January 2009…
We saw a massive new peak for NEM-Wide demand set on 29th January 2009, which surprised many (including us).
We return to that data and, by comparing with the previous 10 summers, see whether it should have been entirely unexpected.
We noted yesterday (Wednesday 10th June) that NEM-wide demand climbed past 32,000MW for the first time this winter.
The following evening saw demand climb to similar levels (a peak of 32,054MW at 18:20 – so 35MW higher than the previous night). However the situation on Thursday night was different in two key ways…
On Wednesday 10th June 2009, temperatures plunged across the NEM for the first time this winter, providing a long-awaited dump of snow to start the season, and driving electricity demand high.
Given that the holidays are now over (for most of us) and we’re returning back to “normal” life, we thought it would be a good time to provide a brief overview of what’s happened in terms of NEM-Wide demand, to date.