Almost three years on – reflections on Frequency Control in the NEM
Guest author (and power system control specialist), Kate Summers, looks at what’s changed since she published a paper on frequency control in the NEM back in January 2017.
Seasonal Record of Events in the Market
Collections of events that we see happening in the NEM, categorised in terms of the seasons in which they occur.
‘Duck Curve’ delivers declining Minimum Demand levels in South Australia
An email alert from NEMwatch (noting Scheduled Demand under 500MW in South Australia today) distracts us, and prompts us to dig a little deeper at the longer-term trend.
A day in the life of a large-scale Solar Farm in the NEM –a Case Study of Ross River Solar Farm on Thursday 10th October 2019
Thursday 10th October 2019 presented another day of many negative price events in the QLD region. In this Case Study (prepared for dual purposes) we look at how one particular solar farm operated through this period – Ross River Solar Farm.
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 case, coal-fired power).
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 those readers not actively involved in wholesale trading in helping to understand why some conspiracy theories might not match reality.
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 ALL participants that determines price outcomes. Guest author Allan O’Neil takes a closer look at recent NEM bidding.
Four quick thoughts, as the run of negative prices in Queensland continues…
The run of prices at $0/MWh and below is continuing in Queensland region this week as we pass into spring (many dispatch intervals today down as low as the Market Price Floor at -$1,000/MWh). This begs a few questions…
ESOO Unboxing
Without resiling from last week’s criticism of how the headlines from AEMO’s 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) were communicated, it’d be churlish for me to fault the depth of disclosure and data sitting behind those results. Literally tens if…
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 as humanly possible. There’s no doubt…
AEMO releases its 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities – more tinder for the “energy wars” fire…
AEMO releases its Electricity Statement of Opportunities today, with an initial flurry of press coverage. Another reminder of heightened risk that the NEM is increasingly facing…
Summer 19-20 is heating up already, with Reserve Trader called
Bit of an uncanny coincidence, having posted some concerns about the coming summer 2019-20 only 2 days ago, to find that the AEMO has called for expressions of interest for the Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) Panel across all…
Two other opportunities to meet with us in Sydney during August, and discuss the Generator Report Card
Given the high level of interest in the Generator Report Card, both the Australian Institute of Energy and the Australian Energy Council have organised separate events (in Sydney in August) providing the opportunity to talk through some of the things we’ve learnt through the process of putting the Generator Report Card together. You’re most welcome to attend!
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 one is metaphorical and operates at several different levels (and is much, much more difficult to manage).
Questions and Observations–about AGL’s Liddell, Torrens A (and Loy Yang A) stations
Some thoughts about some important questions we should be asking, to follow on from AGL’s announcement last Friday in relation to Torrens A (linked to Barkers Inlet and Loy Yang A2) and also about Liddell.
Keeping the lights on this summer – possible impact of the Loy Yang A2 and Mortlake outages
Two large thermal generating units in Victoria with combined capacity of over 800 MW have recently experienced major electrical faults each requiring many months to repair. Previous WattClarity posts have covered initial assessments of the outages of AGL’s 530 MW Loy…
Spot power at $0/MWh in all regions (Sign ‘o the Times*?)
A few thoughts about the dispatch price being at, or below, $0/MWh for a dispatch interval on Sunday afternoon – implications for the future…
A quick look at Mortlake Unit 2 outage
A quick look after the unit trip (including reported explosion) at Mortlake Unit 2
Extended outage of Loy Yang A unit 2 – reliability and forward price impacts
A broader look at what the extended outage at Loy Yang A unit 2 seems to be having on the spot and financial markets into the future, via AEMO MT PASA data, and via the ASX Energy’s futures price data.
Brief comment on the extended outage at Loy Yang A unit 2
Following the notice from AGL Energy on Friday last week about the extended outage occurring at Loy Yang A unit 2, here’s some initial thoughts via WattClarity (with more to come as time permits)
Peak Wind Output in the NEM has climbed above 4000MW
A large block of green (signifying wind) in our NEMwatch dashboard this morning prompts a look at what the all-time maximum production is these days…