List of privately-owned merchant portfolio generators in Australia

Inquiry identifies privately-owned merchant portfolio generators in Australia

A report prepared for the Owen Inquiry by Morgan Stanley lists four privately-owned merchant portfolio generators in Australia. Reference: Morgan Stanley, Report to the Owen Inquiry: Securing Private Investment in New Generation in New South Wales, 31 August, 2007. 16/10/2007

How new NSW gas-fired peakers changed price spikes in 2001 and 200

How new NSW gas-fired peakers changed price spikes in 2001 and 2002 A chart showing standard deviation in the electricity pool price per quarter contained in a report “Securing Private Investment in New Generation in New South Wales” prepared by Morgan Stanley for the Owen Inquiry also demonstrated the commissioning of gas-fired peakers during 2001 and 2002.

Reference: Morgan Stanley, Report to the Owen Inquiry: Securing Private Investment in New Generation in New South Wales, 31 August, 2007.

2007 exposure: Snowy Hydro electricity swaps and swap like instruments

Reference: Snowyhydro Limited renewable energy ABN 17090 574 431, Consolidated Financial Report for the Financial Year, 2 July 2006 to 30 June 2007

Spike prices past $3000/MWh in Queensland

Three back up generators deployed to Denmark and Walpole to cope with new load from Western Australia nickel plant at Ravensthorpe, from June 2007: $14 million spent over 5 years

Fran Logan, Western Australia Minister for Energy, and ALP Member for Cockburn told Parliament on 14 August 2007 that three generators were deployed to Ravensthorpe to provide support to the local electricity network from June 2007.

Private ownership of coal ports – owner wants to spend up, to boost shareholder returns, while the user wants to restrict spending to get the cheapest port charges

Leo Zussino, who ran the Port of Gladstone, and Peter Coates of Xstrata Coal would be working closely together in the next few years if Queensland’s Surat Basin coal province was opened up as a major source of exports – but they would have to agree to disagree on one thing, according to The Courier Mail (7/8/2007), p. 61).

Stocktake tender with February 2008 deadline suggests NSW Treasury plans sale of Macquarie Generation Bayswater and Liddell Power Stations

It appeared Macquarie Generation was preparing for a sale, in a Request for proposals 85/2007 for a fixed asset and inventory stocktake. Macquarie Generation, the state owned corporation, is New South Wales’ largest electricity generator and the owner of Bayswater and Liddell Power Stations, located in the Hunter Valley.

LNG plans may raises SE grid gas-price: Santos requires 4,000-5,500PJ; Arrow at least 1,000PJ, three times current level of CSG production

Santos and Arrow Energy had recently announced proposals for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects in Gladstone, noted the Owen Inquiry into Electricity Supply in NSW, Availabiltiy and Cost of Gas for NSW Baseload Generation (31/7/2007).

Stocktake tender with February 2008 deadline suggests NSW Treasury plans sale of Macquarie Generation Bayswater and Liddell Power Stations

It appeared Macquarie Generation was preparing for a sale, in a Request for proposals 85/2007 for a fixed asset and inventory stocktake. Macquarie Generation, the state owned corporation, is New South Wales’ largest electricity generator and the owner of Bayswater and Liddell Power Stations, located in the Hunter Valley.

Libs have “four decades of advocating nuclear reactors”; if the coalition are re-elected later this year, those reactors will be progressed by the government, ALP MP says

ALP MP Brendan O’Connor, Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations, Member for Gorton, said the Government should publicly announce the locations of the planned “25 nuclear reactors”, before the election, in a statement to the House of Representatives on 11 September 2007.

All I want for Xmas: TRUenergy wants NSW market access retail load

Sam Bristow, Director, Business Development, TRUenergy Australia argued that the single biggest policy change required (in NSW) was to allow private investors to mass market access retail load. “Merchant and PPA options (leave) Government (with) market risk, with consequent pressure on its credit rating”.

Market report for Wednesday, 26 September: Average prices up 64pc in Tas, down 16-24pc in NSW, Vic, SA and Qld to $38.04-$57.62/MWh range on higher demand

Average prices rose 64 per cent in Tasmania with the absence of negative prices and fell 16-24 per cent in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland to a range of $38.04-$57.62/MWh.

Prices averaged $247/MWh in NSW for the month compared to an average price of $33/MWh in June 2006, but demand was 3 per cent below last winter

Games were played in June, according to Tim Mendham, writing in The Australian Financial Review, 19/9/2007, p. 4.

My word: Federal policy-makers gave Qld coal lobby view more weight than the views of six State governments, so coal escapes use of term “pollutant”, for CO2

The Queensland Resource Council (QRC) had successfully lobbied the Federal government to undo the States’ plan to include greenhouse gases in the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) Thus, the lobby-group view had prevailed over six State governments – which had agreed – at COAG,  that they wanted the NPI used. The QRC policy was instead, implemented in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Bill 2007 so the QRC could avoid the use of one word “pollution”, to describe CO2-e emissions from coal production and use. The QRC had argued it was perverse to call CO2 a “pollutant”, and therefore the public -access NPI should not include CO2-e. It wanted – and got – the continued use of the “Greenhouse Challenge”, a more secretive system.

Bass Pipelines proposal could deliver Tasmania water to dry Victorian Latrobe generators

A Melbourne-based consortium was well advanced with plans for three massive pipelines from Tasmania’s North-West to southern Victoria, reported The Mercury (8/9/2007, p.1).

NSW 640MW Uranquinty OCGT project: estimated gas cost $4.13/GJ; plans to start late-2008

The Uranquinty project achieved State Government approval and was being developed by Wambo Power Ventures Pty Ltd, jointly owned by Babcock & Brown and ERM Group, according to ‘Fuel resource, new entry and generation costs in the NEM’, a report by ACIL Tasman for NEMMCO (27/3/2007).

Qld, 8 September: Heavy rains during the past week added 5400 megalitres to the combined storages of Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams

According to The Courier Mail, (08/09/2007, p.7) quoting SEQWater operations manager Rob Drury, a further month’s supplies were added to Brisbane’s dams through scattered rainfall over the past week with last Thursday’s inflows alone adding 5400 megalitres into the combined storages of Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams.