Negative spot prices in Queensland

Further to my note from a week ago, we’ve continued to see Queensland prices remain in the doldrums for much of the past week.

Mid-morning this morning, we even saw the spot price dip below zero again, something that would have been unthinkable in Queensland (except following large price spikes) a couple of years ago.  This one was captured in a display copy of NEM-Watch:

On Friday 1st (when making the other post) we noted how gas prices at the Brisbane STTM hub were down at only $1/GJ – but today in GasWatch we see reasonably “healthy” prices.  Perhaps the issue is too much volume to get away on the STTM, so ending up being burnt in GTs:

With NEM-Watch we can see that there’s 1,400MW of generation coming from gas at the moment, which will certainly be helping to keep the price low.  No need for triggering demand response for those clients we have who are spot-price exposed and hence enjoying the benefits! [see disclosure note]

Another factor contributing to the generator’s pain is the seemingly endless sunshine – according the APVI’s estimates, solar PV is eating away about 600MW of demand and contributing to the low levels of scheduled demand seen in the NEM-Watch image above:

In 2007, with the drought, we were collectively praying for rain for the more obvious reason – now it seems that generators might be asking the heavens for a few cloudy days of respite…