Sunday 24th Jan 2021 – a couple discrete incidents

It was forecast it would be a hot day in the southern part of the NEM and it did not disappoint. The hot weather was one of the factors that contributed to price spikes … in Regulation FCAS, and then in QLD and later in South Australia.



Yesterday’s unexpected loss of ~500MW of rooftop PV in South Australia (another type of Contingency event – Credible, or Non-Credible?)

Wednesday 13th January 2021 was a busy day in the NEM, with a couple of different events occurring. In this article we explore a sudden and unexpected drop in output across both rooftop PV and large-scale solar in South Australia that delivered both price spikes, and also broader questions about emerging challenges for the grid (and market).





Cranking the handle, to produce the Generator Statistical Digest 2020

In the same week that the Energy Security Board publishes it’s ‘The Health of the NEM’ reports, looking from a top-down systems perspective, we crank the handle to produce the ‘Generator Statistical Digest 2020’ as a bottom-up 10-year review of the performance of all Scheduled, Semi-Scheduled and some Non-Scheduled generators and scheduled loads across the NEM that operated through some part of 2020.




Temperature Alert!

As we wind down for Christmas, recapping some developments (in Nov and Dec 2020) about high temperature limitations on generation technology across the NEM.



What’s up with the fleet of 16 x coal-fired units in NSW?

Following a week where several days saw price volatility in NSW (with this being so extreme that Reserve Trader was triggered on Thursday 17th December) we’ve taken a look at the comparative performance of coal units across the NEM (and particularly in NSW) compared to prior years.