The (slow) decline of coal
Questions from several readers prompted this quick look at the long-term trend of coal generation.
Questions from several readers prompted this quick look at the long-term trend of coal generation.
This morning (Mon 7th Sept 2020) the ESB released its Discussion Paper into the design of NEM 2.0 – with 7 different work streams suggested (and submissions due 19th October 2020).
Prompted, in part, by yesterday’s record low for Victorian demand, today I have finished off my earlier review of what happened on Saturday 29th August (8 days earlier) when demand levels also dropped in VIC, and right across the NEM.
Within the same 24 hour period as California again feels the stresses of its own extremes, we see that Victoria experiences the other side of this energy transition challenge, with a new record low for Scheduled Demand set for *any* time of the day…. in the middle of the afternoon!
Out of curiosity, and driven by questions received from several people, I’ve invested a bit of time today to delve further into the record low level of Scheduled Demand seen in the Victorian region (and perhaps also across the whole of the NEM) on Saturday 29th August 2020.
Have not checked thoroughly, but a quick scan suggests that the low point for Victorian Scheduled Demand at 13:05 today was a new record for minimum (daytime) demand. If it is, this would be an uncanny coincidence given …
Guest author, Allan O’Neil, takes a look at the AEMO’s 2020 ESOO to unpick the reason for the differences in outlook (and the sensationalised news headlines) compared to 2019 ESOO.
AEMO also published something else today which (whilst not as publicised as the ESOO) will be of keen interest to many stakeholders in South Australia…
This morning (Thursday 27th August 2020) we saw the AEMO release the 2020 edition of the Electricity Statement of Opportunities.
This 15th Case Study is longer than the earlier 14 as it deals with 4 discrete instances of extreme level of collective under-performance, and 1 instance of over-performance, all within a 4-hour timeframe on the same day. A day which appears to have had widespread weather activity affecting the output of BOTH Wind and Solar across 3 Regions. A challenging day!
Some SMS alerts notified me of some volatile dispatch intervals this evening in mainland regions. So I took a quick look…
Tis the season for records, it seems, with Queensland seeing a very low level of Scheduled Demand during the day today – Sunday 23rd August 2020.
Yesterday (on Fri 21st Aug 2020) we saw a new record set for BOTH daily peak instantaneous output across all wind farms in the NEM, and also daily average output across all wind farms in the NEM.
This is the 13th Case Study in this series (looking at each of 98 extreme incidents). We’re looking at an event on 15th October 2018 that seems to heavily feature high-wind cut-out as the primary driver for collective wind farm under-performance.
Guest author, Mark Todoroff, examines operational demand figures for each region to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on the NEM.
This is the 13th Case Study in this series (looking at each of 98 extreme incidents). Note I have skipped 2 events earlier in 2018 and will come back to publish case studies of them – this one covers the last event in 2018.
This is the 12th Case Study in this series (looking at each of 98 extreme incidents). This one is simpler than the 11th Case Study!
In this 5th article in a series, we look at the impact on electricity consumption of Stage 4 Lockdown associated ‘State of Disaster’ in Victoria
Guest author, Andrew Wilson, reviews the performance of his home solar + battery system at the one year mark after installation.
This is the 11th Case Study in a series (looking at extreme outcomes of Aggregate Raw Off-Target for Semi-Sched units). We’ve rolled into 2018, now and (coincidence?) this one is much more complex than the first 10 from the earlier years …