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...
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.
Some observations about Storage
Last minute complications mean that I cannot speak at today's "Queensland Smart Energy Summit" (with Jonathon Dyson being an even better substitute). Here are some of the observations...
Who’s responsible for those negative prices?
Rapidly growing solar PV output has been widely tagged as the cause of low and even negative prices in Queensland. But in any market it’s the behaviour of...
The Fuel Mix supporting the NEM is at the start of a massive transformation
Two pages taken from our Generator Report Card following several different requests from people who attended different events recently where the Report Card was discussed.
Transitional challenges require greatly enhanced analytical capability (exemplified in MT PASA Rule Change proposals, for instance)
A few additional thoughts about proposed changes to the MT PASA process, informed by our conclusions in Theme 14 within Part 2 of our Generator Report Card.
Initial thoughts and questions about last Friday’s under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain
Some brief data gathering and analysis, primarily because I could not resist the exploration, of what might have happened with the load shedding in the electricity grid across...
Calculated level of inertia in the South Australian grid, supplied by synchronous generation plant
Last week's notable under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain following what appears to be the loss of two generation units in quick succession prompts me to publish some...
Two different storm warnings in South Australia – one literal, and one metaphorical
Coincidentally this week it seems to me that we're facing storm warnings on two different fronts - one literal (and much easier to prepare for), whilst the other...
Assessing the diversity of intermittent (wind and solar output) as one piece of analysis in the Generator Report Card
In terms of diversity of intermittent supplies, we need to understand that we're not just comparing data series on a scale that runs from "highly correlated" to "random"...
A page for each DUID in (Part 3 of) the Generator Report Card
Worth sharing the level of detail we're going to, in Part 3 of the Generator Report Card (5 parts in total), where we have assembled millions of data...
Degradation of performance at high temperatures
We're taking a much, much deeper dive into generator performance at high temperatures (for all DUIDs operational across the NEM) to see how each one of them, individually,...
Despite growing diversity of Large Solar farms (NEM-wide), large weather events still have major dampening effects
Sharing a trend of daily capacity factor across all Large Solar plant (post commissioning) in the NEM (preliminary analysis for our Generator Report Card).
About claims that AGL was responsible for the uplift in prices after Hazelwood closed
With another upsurge in interest in the effect of Hazelwood closure on price outcomes in the NEM, we've invested some time to provide these thoughts.
The Network Investment Paradox
Guest author, Drew Donnelly, compares case studies of Argentine and Australia to highlight risks in under and over-investment in network infrastructure
Some thoughts about Demand Response, in parallel with AEMC deliberations
A collection of thoughts that have been bumping around in my head for some time about the latest push by various parties to facilitate a broader range of...
Villain #6c – Demand Response is not a magic wand
A note of caution, that Demand Response is not a magic wand - it *can* achieve a lot, but if can't be assumed to automatically appear to bridge...
Villain #5d – obsessing about Negawatts, when the real objective is (broader) Demand Response
One more example of not focusing on the real problems seems to be a tendency for some to obsess about one narrow type of Demand Response (i.e. dispatch...
Lessons Learnt from Amber’s first summer of Spot Exposure in the NEM
Now that summer 2018-19 has passed, we can reflect on our experiences as a new entrant energy services company facilitating spot exposure for residential energy users - and...
Villain #5c – too much focus on COST, not enough focus on VALUE
Some thoughts (triggered by the latest wave of focus on "cost" on social media this week) about why we need to rapidly shift our focus to what customers...
Large Solar in the NEM mainland regions
The growth of Large Solar in the NEM has been phenomenal, and a sign that things are changing quickly in the Australian energy industry. The chart attached is...