The proximate cause
Last Monday’s spot price volatility in New South Wales has prompted gigatokens’ worth of analysis on social and mainstream media. This post aims to cut through all these to the proximate cause?
New South Wales
A down year: a review of Q2 2026 spot prices
This is the 2026 edition of our annual review into Q2 spot prices, where we find that average prices fell sharply in all NEM regions compared to Q2 2025, but more importantly, duration curves are changing shape.
How did Cyclone Alfred impact electricity demand?
By day-end on the Friday the 7th demand levels were down more than 40% in the Gold Coast. Other areas were also impacted.
Solar Farms in south-western NSW constrained to 0MW on Monday 24th June 2024
A quick look at the ‘N-DPWG_63_X5’ constraint set as a driver for the curtailment of solar (and other) units in south-western NSW on Monday 24th June 2024.
After the storm: Looking at Q2 2023 price trends, one year on from an Energy Crisis
One year on from a market-wide suspension, Dan Lee provides a review of Q2 prices for 2023 so that we can examine some of the longer-term price trends.
Brief (55 minute) Market Suspension on 17th March 2023 in NSW due to service interruption of SCADA systems
A just-announced AEMO market notice has declared a temporary suspension of the NSW market.
Ten hours of prices above $100/MWh overnight, across *all* regions
I'm greeted this morning with a view of how prices have remained stubbornly elevated all the way through 10 hours overnight... in all regions!
[CORRECTION – CLOSE TO] New Record Scheduled Demand point also set for NSW on Sunday 31st October 2021 (Part 2)
[CORRECTION - CLOSE TO] Second region to fall lower on Sunday 31st October 2021, in terms of Minimum Scheduled Demand, was the NSW region
NSW renewable energy plan seals death warrant for six gigawatts of coal
David Leitch and Ben Willacy of ITK Services provide analysis of the NSW Government's recently announced renewable energy plan.
Operating under siege
We take a look at challenges for AEMO in operating the system under the security threats posed by the ongoing bushfires …
NSW LOR and AEMO request for Generator Recall information
Yesterday, Tuesday 29 October 2019, AEMO issued a Market Notice requesting Generator Recall information from participants in the NSW region. This was issued at 15:27 on Tuesday 29 October 2019, and came after numerous Lack of Reserve notices, the first of which was at 1103...
Lessons Learnt from Amber’s first summer of Spot Exposure in the NEM
Now that summer 2018-19 has passed, we can reflect on our experiences as a new entrant energy services company facilitating spot exposure for residential energy users - and hence expanding the scope for Demand Response in the NEM.
First scorching summer day for the year and the sky rocketing price of electricity.
The first day of scorching summer temperatures for the year has been matched with elevated electricity prices in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia for most of the day. Queensland and Tasmania experienced small patches of high prices yet prices remained elevated for the...
A potentially extreme temperature forecast for Adelaide and Melbourne next week…
Following AEMO's warnings issued yesterday about possible extreme heat next week in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, I take more of a look at what might transpire and compare it to historical correlations between cities.
Large Solar in the NEM mainland regions
The growth of Large Solar in the NEM has been phenomenal, and a sign that things are changing quickly in the Australian energy industry. The chart attached is the maximum output of each region from Large Solar installations on a weekly basis. At the start...
Reviewing the pattern of spot prices for Q2 2018 suggests that we’re far from out of the woods, yet
Returning to the theme of analysis of Q2 prices (completed in 2017 and 2016 due to Q2 historically being an uneventful period) we see that prices have backed off from the "off the charts" level of 2017, but are still much higher in all regions...
Recapping a shaky week for the supply-demand balance in the NSW region last week (Mon 4th June to Fri 8th June 2018)
The start of some analysis that helps to identify the variety of factors that combined to give a shaky balance between supply and demand in NSW last week.
Electricity demand stopped declining after 2014 (on a NEM-wide, Annual Average basis)
A comment made by TransGrid at the Energy Networks 2018 conference today jolted me to update my (somewhat) outdated paradigm of declining demand.
A timely reminder of the need for *much* more diversity in wind harvest patterns
Alerted by our NEMwatch dashboard, I delve into the data and see a scary degree of correlation between the (very low) output of wind farms in south-east South Australia, and (similarly low) output from newer wind farms in northern NSW.
It’ll be hot in parts of the NEM tomorrow (Saturday 6th Jan) but don’t expect demand to be too high – and don’t be trigger happy on the Emergency Demand Response!
Weather forecasts tell of an expected hot weekend on Saturday (in Melbourne & Adelaide) and then Sunday (in Sydney) - which has led to some news articles talking about "searing heat across the southeast putting energy supplies under pressure". Let's not get carried away -...