Post: Five states face continued power uncertainty as AEMO warns of supply interruptions

Five states face continued power uncertainty as AEMO warns of supply interruptions

Eastern Australia faces another day of electricity shortages requiring regulators to order generators back into the market to avoid outages.

Each of the five states in the National Electricity Market (NEM) has a forecast shortfall of electricity, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). Further market notices published on the AEMO website are warning of maximum power load interruptions in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. This is forecast to impact Queensland from 5pm until 10:30pm and NSW from 5:30pm to 10:30pm, with further interruptions possible tomorrow. Potential power interruptions are being forecast for Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria tomorrow evening. NSW had the largest forecast shortfall of 1,726MW at 9pm, Queensland has three forecast gaps, the largest of which was 1,537MW at 8pm. For Victoria, the forecast gap would land at 6.30pm on Wednesday at 218MW.

The market operator also triggered its Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) in Queensland for a second consecutive day and activated it in NSW. RERT is a function conferred on AEMO to maintain power system reliability and system security using reserve contracts. Typical examples of reserve that can be procured for RERT include:

• Unscheduled load that can be curtailed and restored on request from AEMO, this can be large industrial load or a group of aggregated smaller loads
• Unscheduled generation assets (such as standby diesel generation).

To be eligible, reserves provided under a reserve contract must not be available to the National Electricity Market through any other contract or arrangement in the trading intervals which the reserve is required.

Source: AEMO

The cost of power has been rising so rapidly that AEMO stepped in to place a cap on the wholesale price of electricity in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. AEMO set the price cap for consumers at $300/MWh. “As a consequence, available offers from generators reduced, contributing to a forecast supply shortfall,” AEMO said. AEMO also said it was “seeking a market response” from power generators to cover the projected shortfalls.

In an interview, federal energy minister Chris Bowen said the situation had been exacerbated by coal fired power stations being offline, “some of it unplanned; that has led to pressure on the system, and some of the price rises, which has then led to the price caps, which has then led to the AEMO having to intervene”. But he was confident the lights would remain on despite the warnings.

Separately, the Australian Energy Regulator has written to power retailers and generators on their “obligations under the law for fair bidding, for accurate bidding, and reminding them of the ramifications if they don’t, and informing them, as they should expect, that the Australian Energy Regulator is and will continue to monitor their behaviour very quickly.”

Brochure

Australia Brochure Ai. Services

Using AI and Robotic Trading combined with the expertise of our trading experts and Data Scientists, GridBeyond’s Point Ai. Services open the door for your business to take your energy strategy from passive purchasing and consumption to active energy management and trading.

Learn more