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.
On the 4th of February at around 11am energy users in NSW appear to have curtailed their load in response to high prices, resulting in a significant drop in demand. Simultaneously, network conditions and generator rebidding caused the NSW pool price to jump back and forth between extreme prices close to VOLL ($10,000/MWh) and the Market Floor Price (-$1,000/MWh).
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…
A Market Event Report has been published on the NEMMCO website discussing the market outcomes of the high energy prices in the New South Wales and Queensland regions on Friday, 31 October 2008.
A tight supply/demand balance in NSW on the 31st October, exacerbated by transmission constraints into the region led to sustained higher prices in NSW.
An illuminating view of the NEM during the high NSW prices on 31st October 2008, illustrated with screenshots and a dynamic video from the new NEM-Watch v8.
There was a temperature-driven spike in demand across the NEM later in the week beginning Sunday 7th January – culminating in the summer’s first demand peak above 30,000MW (on Thursday 11th January).
On this occasion, the spot price spiked above $1000/MWh in Queensland, NSW, Snowy and Victoria,