Two units at Vales Point trip simultaneously on Sunday 7th June 2020
A quick look at the two units tripping at 13:33 on Sunday 7th June 2020, and some earlier operational problems the day before (perhaps unrelated).
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.
Sunshine State forgets its own branding on Saturday 23rd May 2020
Analysis compiled to explore what the impact was of the unusual weather pattern (extensive cloud cover and cold temperatures) seen across a large part of Queensland on Saturday 23rd May 2020.
Reasonably widespread deviations delivers highest ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Wind’
This is the 3rd of 4 Case Studies to follow on from the main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings). In this case, let’s look at the ‘worst’ case, in aggregate, where wind units under-performed compared to dispatch targets.
Can batteries replace ‘cap’ contracts to hedge customer load? A case study from Q1 2020
Guest author, Andrew Wilson, presents a case study of the performance and results from the University of Queensland’s 1.1MW Tesla Powerpack system during Q1 2020.
Case Study about Non-Conformance with Yarranlea Solar Farm on Friday 1st May 2020
Following on from the article posted on the day, here’s a focused look at what can be seen in (‘next day’ public) data for Yarranlea Solar Farm on Friday 1st May 2020 – a day that saw negative prices through many half-hour trading periods in Queensland, and Large Solar farms cycling as a result.
Stanwell unit operation on 12th October 2019 delivers most negative ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’
This is the 2nd of 4 Case Studies to follow on from Tuesday’s main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings). In this case, let’s look at the ‘worst’ case, in aggregate, where coal units over-performed compared to dispatch targets.
Kogan Creek trip on 9th October 2019 delivers highest ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’
Following on from Tuesday’s main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings), this is the first of 4 x Case Studies that look at each of the extremes in outcome. This one is the dispatch interval featuring the greatest over-performance, collectively, across all coal units through 2019.
Aggregate wind production peaked above 5,000MW for the first time (NEM-wide) – on Friday 1st May 2020
Quick notes about a new peak in wind farm output across the NEM that occurred on Friday evening last week (1st May 2020).
Spot prices plunge in QLD, and may well remain underwater for the coming week
Three main factors contributed to the spot prices in Queensland dropping underwater today for a number of hours – with some factors suggesting this might be the pattern for the coming week…
Observing Easter Saturday, a little belatedly
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, invests some time to explore a number of different aspects of Easter Saturday (11th April 2020), each noteworthy in their own right (including low demand, high percentage share renewables, negative prices and dynamic bidding)
Four units trip in Victoria on Easter Saturday
A quick look at Saturday 11th April (Easter Saturday) where there were major reductions in output at 4 units across Victoria – 3 coal units in the Latrobe Valley and the Macarthur Wind Farm out in western Victoria, probably related.
1st thoughts on possible impacts of COVID-19 on Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM)
Like everyone else, we’re grappling with how COVID-19 will impact on us personally – and also in terms of what we do at work. Here’s a few initial thoughts about the types of impacts (and risks to manage) in relation to the National Electricity Market.
Scheduled Demand in South Australia drops to levels not seen since the history of the NEM (excluding System Black)
Alarms in one of our NEMwatch dashboards alerted me to the plunging level of Scheduled Demand seen this afternoon in the the Victorian and South Australian regions of the NEM – a new record low point for South Australia.
Surviving on the island – again
Another islanding event separated the SA region from the rest of the NEM yesterday (Monday, 2nd of March). Allan O’Neil investigates what happened before the event and possible causes.
South Australia islanded again – Monday 2nd March at 12:00
Two weeks ago (Monday 17th February) a ‘temporary fix’ was put in place to reconnect SA with VIC following the transmission line outage that began on 31st January 2020. Well, we’ve islanded again today….
Don’t Forget About FCAS!
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes a look at what’s happened in the (islanded) market for FCAS services in South Australia over the past two weeks with Heywood out of service. He notes:
“generators in SA as a group would have paid out roughly twice in contingency raise FCAS costs what they earned from selling energy”
Rooftop Solar PV systems did trip in SA on Friday 31st January 2020 in conjunction with the Heywood trip
Investing some time over the weekend with a some higher-speed data on output of rooftop solar PV systems across VIC and SA reveals some interesting observations about what happened on Friday 31st January 2020 in conjunction with the transmission damage and Heywood trip.
January 31 Followup – How did the lights stay on in South Australia?
Guest author, Allan O’Neil delves further into understanding what happened in response to the transmission tower failures on 31st January 2020 that sent system frequency in South Australia and led to a large reversal of flows.
Heat pushes QLD Scheduled Demand within 214MW of the all-time maximum level on 3rd February 2020
It feels like a lifetime ago, already, but I do vaguely remember that we released our Generator Statistical Digest 2019 last week, on Tuesday 28th January 2020. All the tasks that I had scheduled to follow on from that launch…
What happened with System Frequency with the SA Islanding on Friday 31st January 2020?
Cautioning readers that I am a novice at reading frequency data in this manner, I take a first look at how the frequency in Melbourne and South Australia varied at the time of the transmission outage at 13:24:30 on Friday 31st January 2020.