A collection of articles about events that occur through winter 2021 in the NEM (i.e. March, April, May 2021)
Now making it 5 out of the past 6 years, we return to the analysis of electricity (spot and futures) pricing patterns for Q2 periods across the NEM regions … and also in Western Australia. We see a number of ways in which Q2 2021 was ‘anything but boring’!
Read MoreFor a second portion of Q2 “elephant eating”, I’ll look in some detail at the dynamics of an early instance of spot price volatility in Queensland, because many drivers turn out to be similar across other volatile intervals in the…
Following Saturday’s review of changed expectations for Callide Power Station and Yallourn Power Station, I took a look at aggregate expectation by fuel type. Here’s a belated article with the results.
An old adage runs that to eat an elephant, it’s best to proceed in small servings. With a very eventful Q2 in the NEM not yet finished, the number of headline events is already large enough – unexpected price volatility…
The volatility that has been with us for weeks now (particularly QLD and NSW), and the dramas unfolding at Callide power station, prompted me to have a broader look at the availability of black coal plant across QLD and NSW, and compare this to prior Q2 periods.
Discussion in a number of different places (including an AFR article today) prompted me to pull some data together of how (spot and futures) prices have trended through 2021, and how they changed with the Callide C4 problems.
A note of thanks to Mark Ludlow at the AFR for the compilation of some great initial information about what happened at Callide C4 unit just over a week ago (on Tue 25th May 2021).
For ease of future reference, here is the list of events that occurred on Tuesday 25th May 2021 … as we (currently) see them.
This evening I’ve taken a first pass look at how QLD generators bid on Tuesday 25th May 2021, in response to the tight supply/demand balance created by the Callide C4 outage and cascade of events.
Whilst there were many things that went wrong on Tuesday 25th May 2021 (last week), guest author Allan O’Neil highlights that there were at least 4 things that went right – contributing to a much less severe outcome than would otherwise have been the case.
Carl Daley from EnergyByte, provides more insight into the events of last Tuesday, which culminated in widespread blackouts throughout Queensland.
On Friday evening (28th May) and again this evening (Sun 30th May) my phone buzzed plenty of times – due to price volatility, and also alerting on low IRPM (enabled with Callide units offline, and low wind harvest at peak demand time).
Two brief (but important) observations made possible with a chart published on RenewEconomy with respect to the Hornsdale Power Reserve.
A deeper look at the frequency data (our own, and also from some others) reveals a number of other interesting things about what happened on Tuesday 25th May 2021 in Queensland.
My evening reading of an ABC news article (about Callide C) released this afternoon suggests a long, long and expensive outage for Callide C4.
Normally this would be part of a much more complete article adding to WattClarity’s growing coverage of the major power system events in Queensland following the incident at Callide C Power Station. However I for one find it easier to…
Sharing 7 of the ‘Headline Questions’ we’re pondering, as we bury ourselves in the data surrounding the events that happened on Tuesday 25th May … some of which will have long-lasting implications (not to mention detailed investigations).
Following yesterday’s incidents (plural!) we see prices forecast to be high this evening in QLD as well.
Part 5 in an expanding series, looking at what happened in QLD on Tuesday 25th May 2021 – this one looking at system frequency.
First update, day after the event, shows a cautious (initial) approach to returning the 4 units at the Callide site back to service.