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.







South Australia hits the Cumulative Price Threshold

For only the 5th time in 11 years of NEM history (and the 3rd time for South Australia) four consecutive days of price spikes have forced the Cumulative Price to the Threshold, and AEMO has imposed price caps to prevent retailers from going bust.




Prices race in QLD and NSW as horses race in VIC

Tuesday 3rd November, and the temperatures that had driven prices higher in SA the previous day moved eastwards.

Whilst VIC demand was lower as everyone lost their shirts on a horse, demand climbed in NSW and QLD, dragging prices upwards as well.






A brief look at peak NEM-Wide Demand over recent winters

This weekend, we have prepared this analysis of the entries we received for our “Peak Demand Forecaster” competition for winter 2009.

In conjunction with this analysis, we thought it would be of interest to also incorporate this chart (generated from a BETA version of the NEM-Review v6 software package) to highlight how the peak NEM-Wide demand unfolded over the previous winters…


Price cap lifted, and Tassie price spikes again

We reported previously that a price cap was invoked in Tasmania on Tuesday 16th June because the Cumulative Price Threshold was reached. In official terminology, this was an Administered Price Period (APP). At 04:00AM this morning, NEMMCO released a market notice advising the market that the APP had been lifted…


Tassie hits the Cumulative Price Threshold

For only the third occasion in the 10 1/2 years that the NEM has been operational, the Cumulative Price Threshold (CPT) has been reached. Yesterday evening, the CPT was reached in the Tasmanian region.


A review of recent winters in the NEM

For those who weren’t aware, Winter 2009 has seen us offer our “Who’s the Best Demand Forecaster in the NEM” challenge – as a chance for the market to redeem itself, following what happened in summer 2008-09 (when the market surprised us all).


Prices Surge in QLD and NSW as Demand Climbs

We noted yesterday (Wednesday 10th June) that NEM-wide demand climbed past 32,000MW for the first time this winter.

The following evening saw demand climb to similar levels (a peak of 32,054MW at 18:20 – so 35MW higher than the previous night). However the situation on Thursday night was different in two key ways…



Massive Demand, Huge Prices, Load Shedding and the Cumulative Price Threshold (and lessons learnt?)

Wednesday 28th January saw demand across the NEM jump to unprecedented levels, setting a new record of 34,843MW at 16:00 NEM time. On Thursday 29th January, we saw the demand increase still further, leading to prices that stayed high for much of the day (to the point where the Cumulative Price Threshold was reached in VIC and SA and price caps were imposed), and a relatively small amount of involuntary load shedding occurring in VIC and SA.


New record all-time NEM-wide demand (and for VIC and SA) today!

The day is not over yet, but we thought you would be interested in the attached snapshot highlighting the first of the occasions on the day when prices jumped to VOLL in SA and VIC as a result of searing temperatures stopping the tennis, and melting VIC and SA into new demand records for each region.



New record summer demand!

We watched with interest today as demand crept up in all mainland regions to the point where the NEM-Wide demand rose slightly above 33,000MW for the first time ever, during a summer period.