Who gets to run when everyone bids the same? A crash course in disorderly bidding and tie-breaking
Marcelle explores the little-understood concept in NEM dispatch of the tie-break principle, using the new ‘Constraint Dashboard’ widget in ez2view.
system strength
Interim boost to wind and solar in South Australia from ElectraNet’s new Synchronous Condensers
From 10:00 today (Friday 10th September 2021), ElectraNet’s new synchronous condensers (which have been under testing) will be deliver a boost to Semi-Scheduled units in South Australia.
New all-time record for NEM-wide wind production on Saturday 24th July 2021 (above 6,000MW for the first time)
Saturday evening 25th July 2021 saw the instantaneous production from wind farms across the NEM surge past 6,000MW for the first time and set a new ‘all-time’ record that’s substantially higher than the previous record (set only a few days beforehand).
New record for NEM-wide wind production on Tuesday 20th July 2021
A look this morning at the new record (set yesterday – Tuesday 20th July) for NEM-wide wind production.
Initial look at System Strength constraints (curtailing north QLD Solar and Wind) in Event 3 on Tuesday 25th May 2021
We’ve started exploring the constraint data from the QLD region for back on Tuesday 25th May 2021 (with the Callide C4 catastrophe) and here’s some initial information.
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.
Cyclone in Western Australia douses solar production in South Australia on Tue 13th April 2021
Looking back at Tuesday 13th April 2021 – a day in which the ex-tropical cyclone Seroja in Western Australia caused some wobbles in rooftop solar PV output in South Australia.
Repair work on Heywood continues to affect South Australian region
A different type of market notice today (speaking of potential curtailment of embedded generation in South Australia) points to the future … accelerated by Heywood repairs in this instance.
New Sources of Strength
Guest author Allan O’Neil puts together an in-depth explainer about system strength and looks at the current approach to system strength management in South Australia, its impacts and the imminent installation of synchronous condensers on the SA grid.
Which units were most impacted by constraints in 2020?
In this (lengthy) article today, Paul McArdle uses the newly released GSD2020 to take a look at the units that were most frequently impacted by constraints during calendar 2020 – with a view to how this has changed from 2011 to 2020.
Case Study Part 4 – Who did What – in QLD on Tuesday 13th October 2020?
In part 4 of this expanding Case Study of the unexpected price spike on Tuesday 13th Oct, linked to a large & sudden drop in output across 10 solar farms, we take a quick look at what happened at most of the QLD generators through this 10:00 trading period.
Case Study Part 3 – digging still deeper, about what happened in QLD on Tuesday 13th October 2020
In part 3 of this expanding Case Study of the unexpected price spike on Tuesday 13th Oct, linked to a large & sudden drop in output across 10 solar farms, we dig deeper to explore… including wondering whether it would have been expected in advance.
Case Study Part 2 – did Rooftop PV kill Large Solar Farm output (and cause the price spike) in QLD on Tuesday 13th October 2020?
Based on some preliminary analysis of the Powerlink’s ‘Qdata’ set (available in ez2view) we present our current hypothesis as to the sequence of the events yesterday in the QLD region, where 600MW of solar generation was lost, causing the price to spike to MPC.
Observing Easter Saturday, a little belatedly
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, invests some time to explore a number of different aspects of Easter Saturday (11th April 2020), each noteworthy in their own right (including low demand, high percentage share renewables, negative prices and dynamic bidding)
A case study in Active Management at a Semi-Scheduled plant – Tuesday 24th July 2018 at Lake Bonney 2 Wind Farm
A detailed look at two specific trading periods in the day (Tuesday 24th July 2018) that saw negative dispatch prices occur at the start of trading periods – hence provided a case study for how existing Semi-Scheduled plant respond (especially in combination with transmission constraints and the Semi-Dispatch Cap).
AEMO updates generator combinations for SA system strength
AEMO has adjusted the formula (i.e. constraint equations) used to manage system strength in South Australia, which has been (since mid-2017) by constraining down the output of wind farms under certain conditions.
How much wind-powered electricity production has been curtailed in SA since these new constraints were invoked?
An article that sums up some decidedly un-quick calculations we’ve performed – looking over an 8 week period to 13th September to estimate how much wind power has been curtailed by the AEMO.
Wind Farm output in SA constrained, again, by AEMO’s “System Strength” constraint
A quick note about high wind speeds in South Australia this afternoon leading to AEMO constraining wind farm output down for System Strength reasons.