NSW electricity demand a shave higher than last week

Last Thursday I noted how the NSW electricity demand peaked at 12,822MW on a hot summer’s day – prior to a cool change (and other factors, as one of our readers noted) driving a steep reduction in demand.

Today we saw another hot day in the Premier State and, as would be expected as air-conditioners crank up, we saw demand for electricity rise as well.  This morning in NEM-Watch we saw (at 11:35) the demand yet to hit the 12,000MW mark:

NSW Demand only 11,559MW just shy of midday market time

The demand in NSW peaked yesterday at 12,634MW (at 16:05) but this level was exceeded earlier today – with this 12,742MW mark at 14:15:

At 14:15 demand in NSW had eclipsed yesterday's peak, but still below last week's

Also in this snapshot we see the NEM-wide demand has risen to 30,010MW – above the 30,000 mark.  Fifteen minutes later (at 14:30) we see one of the instances of price activity seen through the day (one of the relatively rare times with no interconnectors bound on the mainland, though with Basslink still out of action):

Pricing activity in mainland regions on a hot afternoon

At this point we see NSW demand up at 12,798MW and expect it won’t be too much longer before we see a new peak for summer 2015-16.

Five minutes later (to 14:35), however, we see the demand target drop by a neat 150MW (from 30,251MW down to 30,101MW across the NEM) as a result of what might be price-sensitive demand response (described here), along with other factors.  As part of this drop, NSW demand has dropped by 140MW to 12,658MW:

Demand dropped by 150MW NEM-wide (and by 140MW in NSW)

By 14:50 (15 minutes later) we see NSW demand had recovered to 12,845MW – eclipsing the peak of last week and setting a new mark to beat for the NSW region over the rest of summer:

NSW electricity demand eclipses the high mark set last week and becomes a new peak over summer (thus far)

At the time of posting this article (15:30 NEM time) this was the highest the demand had reached – i.e. demand had begun declining in NSW, whilst continuing to climb in QLD.

One factor common to this week and last has been “the holiday factor” with schools still out, and businesses not yet back to peak busyness.  As these return to normal over the coming week we’ll be interested to see what it means in terms of incremental demand

… and so will those with entries in to win themselves a BBQ this summer


About the Author

Paul McArdle
One of three founders of Global-Roam back in 2000, Paul has been CEO of the company since that time. As an author on WattClarity, Paul's focus has been to help make the electricity market more understandable.

2 Comments on "NSW electricity demand a shave higher than last week"

  1. Paul – it may be worth a commentary on Tasmanian electricity pricing. With Basslink down for the next three months there has been significant RRP volatility.

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