Market report for Thursday, 4 October: Qld spike, Tas negative price on day when average prices up 2-4pc in SA, Qld and Tas, down 7-10pc in NSW and Vic to $32.85-$46.94/MWh range on lower demand

An afternoon spike in Queensland and a morning negative price in Tasmania featured in a day when average prices rose 2-4 per cent in South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania and fell 7-10 per cent in NSW and Victoria to a range of $32.85-$49.94/MWh. System-wide maximum demand was down 394MW (1.4 per cent), led down by a 705MW fall following Wednesday’s 35 degrees in Sydney. Tasmania was also down, but Victoria, South Australia and Queensland were up. Top price of the day was the spike to $105.07/MWh in Queensland for the 30-minute trading interval ended 1300EST. Queensland had the highest average price and Tasmania the lowest.

34 degrees in Brisbane:Temperature ranges in the NEM capitals were: Sydney 16-23 degrees (14-35 on Wednesday); Melbourne 9-19 degrees (15-19) Adelaide 9-22 degrees (13-18); Brisbane 15-34 degrees (18-31); and Hobart 5-16 degrees (10-14).

Murraylink VFRB scheme outage: NEMMCO advised at 1812EST on Thursday, 4 October that a short notice outage of the Murraylink very fast runback (VFRB) scheme in Victoria was scheduled from 1800EST Thursday to 1200EST on Friday, 5 October. It said constraints V–ML_VFRB and IºVSML–010 were invoked for this outage.

Today in detail
• NSW: Average price $39.38/MWh, down 10 per cent on the $43.91/MWh of Wednesday, up 75 per cent on the $22.51/MWh of the comparable Thursday last year; maximum price $60.73/MWh for the trading interval ended 1900EST. Average demand 5713MW, down 3.4 per cent on Wednesday, up 0.5 per cent on a year ago; maximum demand 9852MW for the 1900EST interval, down 6.7 per cent on the 10,557MW on Wednesday.

• Victoria: Average price $37.28/MWh, down 7 per cent on the $39.91/MWh of Wednesday, up 47 per cent on the $25.33/MWh of the comparable Thursday last year; maximum price $56.03/MWh for the trading interval ended 1900EST. Average demand 5999MW, up 1.8 per cent on Wednesday, up 3.3 per cent on a year ago; maximum demand 6656MW for the 1900EST interval, up 0.7 per cent on the 6611MW on Wednesday.

• South Australia: Average price $36.81/MWh, up 4 per cent on the $35.44/MWh of Wednesday, up 33 per cent on the $27.65/MWh of the comparable Thursday last year; maximum price $54.23/MWh for the trading interval ended 1900EST. Average demand 1432MW, up 8.2 per cent on Wednesday, down 3.7 per cent on a year ago; maximum demand 1653MW for the 2000EST interval, up 5.3 per cent on the 1570MW of Wednesday.

• Queensland: Average price $46.94/MWh, up 2 per cent on the $46.06/MWh of Wednesday, up 133 per cent on the $20.12/MWh of the comparable Thursday last year; maximum price $105.07/MWh for the trading interval ended 1300EST. Average demand 5938MW, up 2.4 per cent on Wednesday, up 3.9 per cent on a year ago, maximum demand 6948MW for the 1430EST interval, up 3.9 per cent on the 6688MW of Wednesday.

• Tasmania: Average price $32.85/MWh, up 3 per cent on the $31.87/MWh of Wednesday, up 26 per cent on the $26.15/MWh of the comparable Thursday last year; maximum price $55.90/MWh for the trading interval ended 2000EST. There was also a negative price of minus $3.60/MWh in the 0900EST interval. Average demand 1220MW, down 1.0 per cent on Wednesday, up 10.0 per cent on a year ago; maximum demand 1419MW for the 1900EST interval, down 5.1 per cent on the 1496MW of Wednesday.

MMS production site transfer: NEMMCO advised at 1342EST on Thursday, 4 October that the MMS production environment was transferred to the alternate bay at the NSW site without the loss of any cycles or information and was now operating out of NSW site bay 1, It said load balancing on the MMS production Infoservers would not be restored until about 1730EST on Thursday.

Thursday non-conformists: NEMMCO declared the following scheduled generating units non-conforming over rebids not received during the trading day of Thursday, 4 October:
• The 300MW capacity NSW generating unit Munmorah 4 for 15MW from 1605EST to 1610EST.

• The 265MW capacity South Australian generating unit Northern 2 for 16MW from 1715EST to 1725EST.

• The 150MW capacity Victorian Anglesea power station for -10MW from 2100EST to 2130EST.

• The 380MW capacity Victorian generating unit Yallourn 3 for 30MW from 0030EST to 0115EST on Friday, 5 October.

Generation picture:
In NSW, Liddell 4, Vales Point B5 and Eraring 2 remained idle all day.

In Victoria, Loy Yang A3 and Hazelwood 5 were off all day. The two West Kiewa units, the two Bairnsdale units, Eildon 2, the two McKay units, Valley Power and Somerton operated at various times during the day.

In South Australia Torrens Island B1 returned in the 0600EST interval. Ladbroke Grove 1, Ladbroke Grove 2, Torrens Island B4 and the four Torrens Island A units were offline all day.

In Queensland, Barcaldine operated in the intervals between 0830-1900EST. Kogan Creek, Tarong 4, Tarong North, Swanbank B2, Callide B1 Gladstone 5 and Gladstone 6 were off the grid all day.

In Tasmania, Poatina 220 operated briefly during the day. Bell Bay 1, Bell Bay 2, the three Bell Bay Three units, Woolnorth, Lake Echo, Repulse, Paloona, Cluny and Butler’s Gorge were offline all day.

Interconnector flows: The Victoria-South Australia Heywood interconnector averaged 35.21MW east, down 54.4 per cent on the average 77.24MW east on Wednesday. Murraylink averaged 23.27MW east, down 54.1 per cent on the average 50.73MW east on Wednesday. Vic-Snowy exports averaged 444MW, down 22.8 per cent on average exports of 575MW on Wednesday. Snowy-NSW exports averaged 610MW, down 26.9 per cent on average exports of 835MW on Wednesday. QNI averaged 160MW north, up 202.1 per cent on the average 52.96MW north on Wednesday. Terranora averaged 13.71MW south, down 19.7 per cent on the average 17.07MW south on Wednesday. Basslink averaged 98.80MW north, up 438.1 per cent on the average 18.36MW north on Wednesday.

Erisk Net, 5/10/2007