Australia’s main grid chalked up its worst one-day wind drought in more than two years over the weekend, causing a series of price spikes in South Australia and highlighting the urgent need for more battery storage in the state with the highest penetration of renewables.
National Electricity Market (NEM) watchers note that after a week of relatively strong wind contribution to generation in South Australia, a sudden onset of the doldrums that then settled in for the better part of 24 hours sent some markets into the spiky territory of the not-so distant past.
“After months of relatively flat spreads, the NEM finally delivered some price spikes last night, and South Australia was where it happened,” OptiGrid posted on LinkedIn on Monday.
“The volatility didn’t stop there. Elevated prices persisted overnight, and this morning delivered another period of $20,000 [per megawatt-hour] prices in SA.”
According to OptiGrid, the combination of “close to zero” contribution from wind power, with elevated demand and the market operator’s introduction of a new thermal constraint to protect the network near Balranald, all combined to leave South Australia short of cheap supply.
