Pain at AGL Energy … part 2
Following last week's ASX & Media Release, this week's half-year results presented by AGL Energy has more questions being asked. Here are some ...
Energy Transition
A large collection of articles pertaining to the ongoing ‘Energy Transition’ in any of a number of ways.
Specific sub-categories relate to such things as Coal Closure, and other aspects of the transition.
Analysis of Large Thermals using the GSD2020
Guest author, Nick Bartels, compares calendar year results from GSD2020 to those in the earlier GSD2019 to explore how some thermal units in QLD and SA are changing operating patterns as part of the...
AEMO publishes Handbook for Wind and Solar Generators
As promised in the Intermittent Generation Forum late in 2020, the AEMO has released an important Handbook for operators of Semi-Scheduled (wind and solar) assets.
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...
AGL Energy announces $2.6b impairment … of which $1.9b for legacy wind farm off-take agreements
Today AGL Energy announces a big impairment ... with a big chunk related to long-term wind offtake agreements which AGL entered into between 2006 and 2012.
Using the GSD2020 to explore operating patterns across generation types
With the release of the Generator Statistical Digest 2020, Marcelle Gannon takes a look at how it can be useful for identifying and exploring different patterns of generation.
How aggregate production from Wind and Large Solar in NSW dropped last week – one factor contributing to price spikes and Reserve Trader
An unfortunately timed significant slump in output across all Wind and Large Solar plant in NSW was another of the factors contributing to the price volatility seen in NSW last week.
What’s up with the fleet of 16 x coal-fired units in NSW?
Following a week where several days saw price volatility in NSW (with this being so extreme that Reserve Trader was triggered on Thursday 17th December) we've taken a look at the comparative performance of...
Increasing the transparency and correctness of intermittent generation availability information to AEMO
Following up to AEMO's recent Intermittent Generator forum, Marcelle looks at the challenges for wind and solar farms in providing consistently good plant availability information to AEMO and the value of transparency of this...
PPAs aren’t as easy as they used to be!
This is the fourth 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...
How does a wind or solar farm make money?
This is the third 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...
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.
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...
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...
Batteries vs. peaking plants – a case study from 13 October
UQ's Andrew Wilson pens a case study on the market events that occured on Tuesday the 13th of October in the QLD region, in which he examines the relative performance of UQ's 1.1MW behind-the-meter...
AEMO releases ‘Operational management of low demand in South Australia’
On Thursday 22nd October, the AEMO also released a short document titled ‘Operational management of low demand in South Australia'.
With increasing diversity, the low point of instantaneous aggregate Wind Generation across the NEM is nudging away from 0MW
Patricia Boyce' challenging question coincided with the low point of cyclic wind output across the NEM this afternoon, and prompted some thinking...
Questions prompted by that chart from the ‘Renewable Integration Study’
Patricia Boyce examines a chart that was included in the AEMO's Renewable Integration Study, which depicted actual and modelled solar and wind generation output against underlying demand. She then looks at whether intermittent generators...
Does the NEM need to be redesigned?
Guest author Stephen Wilson chaired an 'ESIG Down Under' conference webinar on 'Designing the Energy Markets of the Future'. Whilst introducing the session, Stephen presented a diagram that helped to clarify the combination of...