The NEM wakes from its spring slumber
A quick review of some activity in the market on Monday 2nd November 2009 (and in particular a price spike in South Australia).
interconnector constraint
November in the NEM (a review of 10 years of history)
One of 12 articles on the months past in the NEM - investigating the trends and significant events in the National Electricity Market during November.
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...
NEMMCO Report: Unplanned Outages of HWTS-LYPS line on 23 July 2008
On 13th November, NEMMCO released the final version of its report into the Power System Incident "Unplanned Outages of HWTS-LYPS line on 23 July 2008"
VOLL Pricing on 23rd July 2008
It appears that we spoke too soon when we mentioned on the 22nd July that winter 2008 had been relatively uneventful. Just over 24 hours from making these comments, we saw prices jump sky-high...
Our review of the heat wave in South Australia
With demand soaring, and interconnectors constrained, generators in South Australia and Victoria took what opportunity they had to force the price high. So successful were the South Australian generators that the Cumulative Price Threshold...
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...
22nd and 23rd February 2008 – a rare hot spell in Queensland
In Queensland we experienced one of the mildest summers I can remember. As a result of this, demand levels were subdued for most of summer. However, for a couple of days in late February,...
7th December 2005 – high demand in Queensland and NSW
For several days in early December, temperatures reaching 40 degrees in Queensland and New South Wales cause airconditioning load (and hence total demand) to soar in both regions. The high demands resulted in very...
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...
2nd February 2006 – price spike in NSW and Queensland
This week saw a new record demand in NSW of 13,292MW on Thursday 2nd February. Correspondingly, average prices were above $100/MWh in both NSW and Queensland - but the price spikes did not transfer...
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...
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...
3rd January 2006 – Outages force QLD price to VOLL
The week started with commotion in Queensland, when the VOLL price ceiling was reached. Further analysis revealed that this was due to transmission system events and the trip of several generation units within Queensland.