Constraint Case Study Followup – Early outcomes of the new “X5 constraint”
On 25th November, guest author Allan O'Neil examined the 'X5 Constraint'. Two weeks of operation have passed, so now Allan reviews some of what's happened.
Energy Literacy
A collation of articles here pertaining to energy literacy.
Conformance and compliance–what’s the difference?
This is the second of a short series of video snippets extracted from the 17th September 2020 presentation by Marcelle Gannon and Jonathon Dyson for the Clean Energy Council entitled ‘Maximising Profitability in the...
Do you know your obligations as a Semi-Scheduled Generator?
This is the first of a short series of video snippets extracted from the 17th September 2020 presentation by Marcelle Gannon and Jonathon Dyson for the Clean Energy Council entitled 'Maximising Profitability in the...
Case Study – How to interpret a new NEM constraint and guess what it might do
Given the great interest in the new 'X5 constraint', guest author, Allan O'Neil, has invested some time to pick the new constraint equation to understand (and then explain) what it is, how likely it...
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 I’ve dived further into this issue...
‘The Market’ means different timescales
From a longer article by guest author Stephen Wilson titled 'Does the NEM need to be redesigned?' we have extracted Stephen's reminder that 'The Market means different timescales'.
Not as simple as it appears – estimating curtailment of renewable generation
Curtailment seems like a simple concept, until you look closely at the details. In this article, Marcelle looks at how to estimate curtailment at wind and solar farms and explores some of the traps.
Generator Hedging in Australia’s National Electricity Market
Guest author, Warwick Foster, discusses the different methods in which generators may hedge in the NEM
How Retailers Use Contracts to Hedge Customers
Guest author, Warwick Forster, provides an explanation of some of the common ways that retailers hedge their risk exposure in the National Electricity Market
Investments in increasing the flexibility of Coal-Fired Power
Some operations at Stanwell Power Station unit 1 in the past couple weeks caught our attention, and are presented as a useful illustration of some concepts related to flexibility of power generators (in this...
More on those negative prices – how do contracts affect bidding behaviour?
Guest author Allan O'Neil provides this handy explainer on how generators’ contract positions affect their bidding decisions and can make negative spot prices pay off, at least in the short term. Very useful for...
ConfUSEd by the ESOO? You’re not alone.
I’d rather not add to the number of conspiracy theories in circulation, but I wonder if there’s a conspiracy to make understanding our electricity system in general, and its reliability in particular, as difficult...
Price Setting Concepts – an Explainer
Guest author, Allan O'Neil, contributes to our series of articles explaining how prices are set the the NEM (as part of how dispatch works). In this article, Allan explains some of the details in...
Different approaches for dispatch
Highlighting the different approaches taken to cost/price based dispatch in an interconnected electricity system (or market).
Beginner’s Guide to how dispatch works in the NEM, and hence how prices are set
Walking through 5 (much simplified) "Dispatch Intervals" to illustrate some starting principles of marginal price based dispatch arrangements, such as used in the National Electricity Market
Helping to tame Villain #4 by understanding more about MLFs
Conversations in the week following my post about "Villain #4" (being the deficit in required Energy Literacy) prompted some analysis relating to Marginal Loss Factors
An explainer about electricity demand [take 1]
Following from a steady stream of questions we receive in relation to a range of our products (but in particular with respect to "the RenewEconomy Widget") we've invested some time to put this post...
Power station ‘trips’ are normal, but blackouts are not
Understanding the difference between blackouts, generator trips and intermittent generation and how these events are managed.
Introducing a train analogy to explain Power Systems 101
[PART 1 of] a post by guest author, Bruce Miller - which was initially posted on LinkedIn as one piece, but which has been broken into two on WattClarity as each part serves different...
What does “Unserved Energy” actually mean – a brief explainer
A brief explainer of what "Unserved Energy" (or USE) actually means, in the context of the AEMO "Electricity Statement of Opportunities 2017" (ESOO) released this week.