From The Saturday Paper, 1 June 2024:
Tuesday, May 7, was an ordinary, moderate autumn day in New South Wales; nothing to suggest a risk of excessive electricity use, price spikes or blackouts.
Between 5.15pm and 5.20pm, however, the wholesale spot price of electricity skyrocketed from about $450 per megawatt-hour – typical for that time of day, when people are getting home, turning on lights and heating, starting to cook dinner – to $14,400/MWh. To put this into perspective, the average spot price for the first three months of 2024 was $76/MWh.
Demand was nothing out of the ordinary, but a few major coal-powered generators were experiencing unplanned outages, including two units at the Eraring Power Station near Lake Macquarie. At the same time, transmission lines that connect NSW to Queensland and Victoria were undergoing maintenance, which reduced NSW’s ability to draw cheaper electricity from interstate. Read more (paywall).
Bianca Nogrady 