Quarterly Renewables Wrap – Q1 2020
Ben Willacy of ITK Services provides his quarterly update on renewable project connection, commissioning, construction and commitment activity for Q1 2020.
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…
AEMO releases its first* ‘Renewable Integration Study’ on 30th April 2020
An article today providing links to the ‘Renewable Integration Study’ which the AEMO released today, and also to the headline media coverage I have seen on my quick scan this morning.
Two papers released by COAG Energy Council are early stages in fleshing out ‘NEM 2.0’
Some brief initial thoughts, following the release of two discussion papers by the COAG Energy Council – the first on two-sided markets, and the second seeming to cover two different challenges (forward markets, and ‘Keeping the Lights on Services’).
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)
Careful with the ‘doomsday claims’ that COVID responses have (or will) massively reduced aggregate underlying electricity consumption in the NEM….
… because the evidence currently suggests that this is just not the case (in this article I explore and explain further)
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.
Do you know the difference between Virtual Inertia and Fast Frequency Response?
Our guest author Stephen Sproul looks at how the Dalrymple Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), currently the only source of virtual inertia on the NEM, responded to the November 2019 SA islanding event.
Semi-scheduled Generation Availability Forecasts–how to improve?
In her first article for WattClarity, Marcelle looks at questions raised in the recent summer on the forecasting of performance at high temperatures of wind and solar generators, and asks how AEMO and industry can work together to improve this.
Electricity demand as a Performance Metric, in the age of coronavirus
This started as a consideration of how applicable ‘change of electricity demand’ is as a general metric for communicating the impact of coronavirus (and measures taken to address it). However it is morphed into some considerations much broader than the energy sector…
ICYMI – COAG EC flags reliability framework changes
Guest author, Allan O’Neil tries to piece together further detail of what is intended with the apparent tightening of the Reliability Standard (which has sat at 0.002% USE for many years).
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.
Using the GSD2019 to explore the VALUE of Dispatchability
An article published by AEMC on the ‘value of dispatchability’ provided the spur to return to our intention of freely sharing insights gleaned from the Generator Statistical Digest 2019. Today’s article highlighting the value of dispatchability.
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.
We’ve been killing New Entrants with kindness?
Last week saw more in a growing series of exits, and asset write-downs, amongst new entrants in the supply of renewable energy within the NEM. Today on WattClarity I ponder whether we have been setting them up to fail due to the nature of support provided to these new entrants. What is your perspective?
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.
Reviewing the ‘accelerated accidental experiment’ thrust on SA during the islanding (31st Jan to 17th Feb) – a 1st review
As time has permitted, I’ve invested some time to prepare this first stage of a review of what went on during the period from 31st Jan 2020 to 17th Feb 2020 – a period during which the South Australian region formed its own frequency island following the transmission line damage. A period we’ve called an ‘accelerated accidental experiment’.
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….
AEMC Rule Change (Feb 2020) agrees with much of what ERM proposed – for ‘Improving transparency and extending duration of MT PASA’
A back-dated article, looking back at the two ERM rule change requests which, when passed by the AEMC, had great effect in expanding transparency in the NEM in relation to generator availabilities from 20th August 2020.