Hugh Saddler from the Australian National University, has used NEM-Review to help explain the state of the electricity market on the ABC’s 7.30 report which was broadcast on the the 13th of February 2017. In the report, several industry experts provide insights on the multi-state energy crisis over the summer that had been developing for several months.
In early February, numerous news websites including the Adelaide Advertiser and the Sydney Morning Herald embedded our NEM-Watch Live Generation Widget (as seen on RenewEconomy) to help explain the generation mix of each state of Australia during the recent heat waves affecting the South Australian and New South Wales electricity network. In addition to the situational awareness that the widget provided, Allan O’Neil made several posts on WattClarity during the week including this initial analysis attempting to explain the root causes of the blackouts experienced in South Australia.
During the national heatwave of February 2016, we fielded many calls from journalists and saw an increasing number of parties use (or embed) a variety of our bite-sized widgets, all focused at making some aspects of complexity more understandable.
One of the conversations I had with a journalist let to being quoted over the weekend saying that solar PV was “mostly useless” late in the day. Hence, over the weekend I added this note of clarification on WattClarity for those who are interested in more than just soundbites.
National Business Correspondent for The Australian, Annabel Hepworth published an article which details the concerns of big energy users in South Australia over high electricity prices after the recent turmoil in the state. Attempting to extend understanding on the situation Paul McArdle provided insights for the article, stating that blackout had “just put a two-week stop” to commercial concerns about the market “but the concerns continue”.
In an effort to talk around last week’s power blackout in South Australia to a wider audience, The Australian published a number of infographics on pg. 6 of their daily edition on Thursday, the 18th of October, 2016.
Included was an artistic reproduction of a snapshot taken from our NEM-Watch Widget from 4pm the previous day – as shown here:
The snapshot was used to compare the energy generation make-up for each state against their respective renewable energy targets
The Australian attributed this image to the SA Government, because they accessed the live chart on the SA Government website.
This location in the Department of State Development is the current location (as at October 2016) of the embedded copy of the NEM-Watch Fuel Type Widgets, one of the growing number of 3rd party “Host” locations that are choosing to embed this widget, which started its life at these two initial locations:
Our CEO, Paul McArdle spent the best part of last night piecing together the animation below in an attempt to understand what went on leading up to and during yesterday’s blackout throughout South Australia. Using ez2view, the animation explains what happened in generation and demand levels in South Australia between 06:00 and 17:00 on Wednesday the 28th of September, 2016.
An initial post and an update on the situation has already been posted on WattClarity, but time permitting, more analysis of what’s happened will be published over the coming days and weeks.
Our CEO, Paul McArdle recently penned an article on WattClarity pondering whether the remarkable price results from Q2 were a short lived excursion or whether they are the begging of a more systematic change in pricing patterns. Paul’s article caught the attention of several journalists including Ben Potter from the Australian Financial Review, who referenced the analysis in his piece ‘COAG out of action as electricity prices soar‘, and sought comments from Paul on the topic:
Average wholesale electricity prices across the National Electricity Market shot up to $65-$80 a megawatt hour in the mainland NEM states in the June quarter, and to $120 in Tasmania, Paul McArdle, director of GlobalRoam, said.
Over the weekend, Angela Macdonald-Smith and Ben Potter from the Australian Financial Review wrote an article discussing the potential cost of the recent Basslink cable failure that has been plaguing Tasmania over recent months. In March, our CEO, Paul McArdle published some of his thoughts on the topic in a post to WattClarity, and he followed it up with a short update last week responding to claims about the total cost of the cable failure. Seeking in-depth insights and analysis on the matter, the journalists referenced Paul’s comments on the matter:
The highest previous estimate of the economic impact of the outage was a $400 million back-of-the-envelope estimate from Brisbane-based energy consultant and GlobalRoam director Paul McArdle, based on similar methodology of applying the increase in average prices to typical usage.
One of our team members was surprised, last night (i.e. Friday 3rd June 2016) to see an old image of an old version of NEM-Watch (from way back in 2007) used to illustrate how Tasmania would normally be interconnected to the mainland by the sub-sea HVDC (high-voltage direct current) link connecting into the Latrobe Valley in Victoria.
Here’s the image that surprised us:
For those interested in the Tasmanian crisis, the ABC story here is worth a watch.
Coincidentally it was also yesterday that I’d published these updated thoughts on WattClarity ® about the magnitude of the cost incurred, in aggregate, by various stakeholders in the Tasmanian region of the NEM as a result of the Basslink outage, now about 6 months old.
Last week, Sydney Morning Herald journalist’s Adam Morton and Brian Morris published an article on the possible closure of coal-power generation at the Hazelwood Power Station. In the article, the journalists sought comments from a number of industry experts including our CEO, Paul McArdle. Providing experience and insight on the topic, Paul was quoted in the article:
Most analysts who spoke to Fairfax Media said it was difficult to say what impact removing Hazelwood would have on prices – Global-Roam’s Paul McArdle said it was the “million dollar question” – but many said they were likely to increase.
Paul McArdle, managing director at Global-Roam, said: “The reality is nobody knows because it depends what competitors do.” He said it was likely prices would rise while also lifting AGL’s profitability, for example.