Spring 2019 in the NEM

A series of articles about what we have observed happening in the NEM





Stanwell unit operation on 12th October 2019 delivers most negative ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’

This is the 2nd of 4 Case Studies to follow on from Tuesday’s main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings). In this case, let’s look at the ‘worst’ case, in aggregate, where coal units over-performed compared to dispatch targets.

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Kogan Creek trip on 9th October 2019 delivers highest ‘aggregate Raw Off-Target’ for the 2019 year for ‘all Coal’

Following on from Tuesday’s main article (summarising results across 105,120 dispatch intervals through 2019 for ‘all Coal’ and ‘all Wind’ groupings), this is the first of 4 x Case Studies that look at each of the extremes in outcome. This one is the dispatch interval featuring the greatest over-performance, collectively, across all coal units through 2019.






NSW LOR and AEMO request for Generator Recall information

Yesterday, Tuesday 29 October 2019, AEMO issued a Market Notice requesting Generator Recall information from participants in the NSW region. This was issued at 15:27 on Tuesday 29 October 2019, and came after numerous Lack of Reserve notices, the first…







More on those negative prices – how do contracts affect bidding behaviour?

Guest author Allan O’Neil provides this handy explainer on how generators’ contract positions affect their bidding decisions and can make negative spot prices pay off, at least in the short term. Very useful for those readers not actively involved in wholesale trading in helping to understand why some conspiracy theories might not match reality.


Who’s responsible for those negative prices?

Rapidly growing solar PV output has been widely tagged as the cause of low and even negative prices in Queensland. But in any market it’s the behaviour of ALL participants that determines price outcomes. Guest author Allan O’Neil takes a closer look at recent NEM bidding.