Collections of events that we see happening in the NEM, categorised in terms of the seasons in which they occur.
Based on a tip from a savvy WattClarity reader, we have a quick look at what turned out to be the lowest-ever (normal) instance of Scheduled Demand on a dispatch target basis in the South Australian region of the NEM.
A detailed look at two specific trading periods in the day (Tuesday 24th July 2018) that saw negative dispatch prices occur at the start of trading periods – hence provided a case study for how existing Semi-Scheduled plant respond (especially in combination with transmission constraints and the Semi-Dispatch Cap).
The multi-region islanding event on Saturday 25th August was a very rare event – perhaps the only one’s that occurred in the history of the NEM. It has generated plenty of questions – and driven our analysis further. We share some more observations here, and keenly await the draft AEMO report.
Following on from Saturday’s islanding event, we use our current interest in AEMO’s 4-second SCADA data to prove a little more…
Both the QNI and the Heywood interconnectors tripped around the same time on Saturday 25th August 2018 (not apparent at this time which one was first, and why), leading to both QLD and SA regions being separately islanded from the rest of the mainland NEM. This also contributed to over 1,000MW of load shedding in NSW and VIC, and presumably some frequency excursions in QLD and SA.
A brief follow on from yesterday’s post, with the advantage of being able to review yesterday’s bids (and rebids) today.
The past week, with wind farm output blowing gangbusters in South Australia (coupled with low demand and System Strength requirements) we seen the “Wind Correlation Penalty” start to bite, with some reactions also beginning to show.
Guest author, Drew Donnelly at Compliance Quarter, uses the review of hedge practices in the wholesale market included in the recent ACCC report as an opportunity to reflect on what approaches they have seen in their work with new entrant retailers
One of our guest authors, Allan O’Neil, takes a closer look at what happened in the South Australian region of the NEM on Monday 9th July 2018
Some brief analysis of today’s price volatility seen in the South Australian region of the NEM
Returning to the theme of analysis of Q2 prices (completed in 2017 and 2016 due to Q2 historically being an uneventful period) we see that prices have backed off from the “off the charts” level of 2017, but are still much higher in all regions than most other regions. In some cases results are second worst in 20 years.
The start of some analysis that helps to identify the variety of factors that combined to give a shaky balance between supply and demand in NSW last week.
Yesterday (Thu 24th May) AEMO issued a Low Reserve Condition notice (at LOR2 level) for South Australia next Thursday 31st May. We take a quick look….
This morning over on Twitter, I was pulled into a discussion that had started with respect to volume of wind energy curtailed in South Australia: The genesis of this twitter conversation was the AEMO’s “Quarterly Energy Dynamics – Q1…
A brief first look at AEMO’s new MT PASA data sets – as we push forward in the next upgrade of our ez2view software to help our clients understand the data, and the opportunities (and threats) that the data reveals.
Already we are seeing the highly correlated output of solar PV deliver interesting challenges for the NEM – both to the project proponents themselves, and also to the “everything else” that supplies what’s left of the underlying demand from electricity from any source.
Alerted by our NEMwatch dashboard, I delve into the data and see a scary degree of correlation between the (very low) output of wind farms in south-east South Australia, and (similarly low) output from newer wind farms in northern NSW.
An unexpected network outage in the south-east of South Australia restricts supplies from Victoria at a time of low wind supply in South Australia and results in the dispatch price spiking to $14,200/MWh from 11:30 and oscillating for the afternoon
A follow-on to my earlier article of a couple weeks ago, looking at another instance where a team effort was required to counter a drop in system frequency following the loss of generation at a large power station (this time the single unit Kogan Creek power station – the largest single unit in the NEM).
A review of the high demand periods over summer 2017/18 highlights the important contribution renewable generation is making to meeting peak demand and addressing the reliability of the power system.