Has adding wind and solar upped the need for FCAS in the NEM?
Allan O'Neil digs through historic FCAS enablement and utilisation levels to examine whether there is an increasing trend in recent years.
system frequency
Investigating last Friday’s frequent frequency swings
Allan O'Neil provides an explainer about how small deviations in supply and demand are managed in the NEM, in order to help us understand the apparent swings in...
Twelve hours of Mainland NEM System Frequency on Friday 3rd February 2023
Another article today presenting 12 hours of history of System Frequency (to ~14:00 on Friday 3rd February 2023) with a few questions added. Comments welcome!
A messy separation: a look at the frequency swings in SA during Saturday afternoon’s islanding event
Dan Lee takes a quick look at 5-second frequency data to show SA's separation from the rest of the NEM and the ensuing frequency swings on late Saturday...
Slightly more detail on System Frequency on Friday 14th October 2022 (Part 4)
Zooming into the ~7 minute period during which the initial event occurred in TAS on Friday 14th October 2022.
Plenty of things went wrong in Queensland last Tuesday, but some very important things went right
Whilst there were many things that went wrong on Tuesday 25th May 2021 (last week), guest author Allan O'Neil highlights that there were at least 4 things that...
Hornsdale Frequency data seems to confirm QNI separated on 25th May
Two brief (but important) observations made possible with a chart published on RenewEconomy with respect to the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
Three Events Yesterday – with Mainland Frequency as low as 48.555Hz
Part 5 in an expanding series, looking at what happened in QLD on Tuesday 25th May 2021 - this one looking at system frequency.
Observations of differences in system frequency in the Mainland NEM (comparing 2019 to 2021)
One of the many data sets being crunched as part of our analytical efforts underpinning the development of 'GenInsights21' is system frequency. In this short article today, we...
Both units trip at Callide C on Wednesday 13th January 2021
A pretty rare event in the NEM, when two units trip simultaneously ... so a short article on WattClarity as a result.
What’s “Primary Frequency Response” and why does it matter anyway?
Paul McArdle recently drew my attention to a short Twitter thread started by David Osmond on the arcane topic of NEM system frequency behaviour: At Paul’s invitation...
Reviewing the ‘accelerated accidental experiment’ thrust on SA during the islanding (31st Jan to 17th Feb) – a 1st review
As time has permitted, I've invested some time to prepare this first stage of a review of what went on during the period from 31st Jan 2020 to...
Rooftop Solar PV systems did trip in SA on Friday 31st January 2020 in conjunction with the Heywood trip
Investing some time over the weekend with a some higher-speed data on output of rooftop solar PV systems across VIC and SA reveals some interesting observations about what...
January 31 Followup – How did the lights stay on in South Australia?
Guest author, Allan O'Neil delves further into understanding what happened in response to the transmission tower failures on 31st January 2020 that sent system frequency in South Australia...
What happened with System Frequency with the SA Islanding on Friday 31st January 2020?
Cautioning readers that I am a novice at reading frequency data in this manner, I take a first look at how the frequency in Melbourne and South Australia...
Almost three years on – reflections on Frequency Control in the NEM
Guest author (and power system control specialist), Kate Summers, looks at what's changed since she published a paper on frequency control in the NEM back in January 2017.
Further analysis of the (very rare) double-islanding events of Saturday 25th August 2018
The multi-region islanding event on Saturday 25th August was a very rare event - perhaps the only one's that occurred in the history of the NEM. It has...
Taking a look at Saturday’s Islanding Event through 4 second SCADA data
Following on from Saturday's islanding event, we use our current interest in AEMO's 4-second SCADA data to prove a little more...
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...
Power System Frequency – What is it doing? – Why does it matter?
The East Coast power system of Australia has the worst frequency regulation in the developed world. This puts the system at risk whenever an event occurs which requires...