Edge News

Our team is dedicated to being across the energy industry. We analyse any changes within the market and evaluate the impact to our clients. Here you will find a range of articles ranging from major industry events through to our detailed views on energy market movements.

23 Aug 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities

Posted at 12:27h in Electricity, Energy Markets, News by Alex Driscoll

Yesterday the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released its 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO), which forecasts electricity supply reliability in the National Electricity Market for the next 10 years. An important change in this year’s ESOO is the inclusion of forecasting of reliability shortfalls that form part of the Retailer Reliability Obligation framework. AEMO continues to forecast a fine margin between supply and demand in several regions. Although most margins are tight, Victoria is forecast to not meet the reliability standard for unserved energy. AEMO has flagged Victoria as a significant risk of insufficient supply to meet demand that could result in load shedding. The key driver for this is the...

30 Jul Queensland Government direction to Stanwell lifted

Posted at 12:05h in Electricity, Energy Markets, News, Uncategorized by Nick Clark

The CEO of Stanwell was quoted yesterday in Reneweconomy.com.au stating that "bidding direction ended on 30 June 2019” in reference to the direction given to Stanwell form the Queensland Government in May 2017 to lower wholesale prices. Spot prices have been soft since 1 July 2019 across the NEM and there is currently no evidence to suggest that Stanwell (and CS Energy) have immediately reacted to the lift of the direction. When the direction was first given by the Queensland Government in 2017 to Stanwell, energy prices materially came down and generally speaking have been less volatile. Key assets such as Swanbank E and Wivenhoe have been utilised by Stanwell and CS...

11 Jul Updates to EdgeLIVE

Posted at 11:01h in Edge Insights, News by Edge Admin

With our vision to create a superior energy management platform, we are constantly developing EdgeLIVE to improve its look and overall functionality for our customers. Our technology team have been working tirelessly to completely overhaul the EdgeLIVE Dashboards and navigation functions relating to your ‘end of month’ account management reporting. Dashboards EdgeLIVE now has dedicated dashboards for Accruals and Invoice Reconciliation. The new dashboards display a summary of the invoice for each NMI, as well as a line-by-line breakdown of the individual invoice items. The new functionality is easy to follow and can provide users with as little or as much detail as is required. Snapshot Dashboard EdgeLIVE also contains a snapshot dashboard to...

09 Jul Enhancements to RERT

Posted at 08:48h in Edge Insights, Electricity, Energy Markets, News by Alex Driscoll

The Reliability and Emergency Reserve Trader (RERT) is an existing intervention mechanism that allows the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to contract for additional reserves such as generation or demand response that is not otherwise available in the market. AEMO uses RERT as a safety net at times when a supply shortfall is forecast or where practicable for power system security. RERT is classified as an emergency reserve or strategic reserve as it may only be used as a last resort to avoid unnecessary load shedding. This is typically required when the market is under pressure from extreme weather or during unexpected generation failure. RERT can be additional generation or load curtailment...

09 Jul Gas Market Update

Posted at 08:47h in Edge Insights, Gas, News by Nick Clark

The Queensland State Government increased the petroleum royalty rate by 2.5% to 12.5% in the 2019/2020 budget, claiming that it will increase revenue by $467 million over the four years ending 2022/2023. The increase received condemnation from LNG producers and their investors. In the announcement, Queensland Treasury drew comparison to royalties in the USA and Canada. The resources sector at large has claimed that the higher tariffs put future investment and jobs at risk. AGL announced during the week that it anticipates first gas to be delivered from its proposed LNG import terminal in the second half of FY22. Originally, AGL indicated that gas would be delivered during FY21, however it...

09 Jul STATE OF THE ELECTRICITY MARKET – AUTUMN MARKET OVERVIEW

Posted at 08:46h in Edge Insights, Electricity, Energy Markets, News by Alex Driscoll

The electricity spot prices in Q219 (April to June) were unsurprisingly lower than the preceding 3 months of Q119 (January to March). Although Q219 experienced some volatility, this was far from the extremes we saw in Q119 with VIC and SA hitting the market price cap in February. Prices during Q219 were higher than Q218 in QLD, VIC and TAS, however lower in NSW and SA. Looking back across the last 10 years, prices have been higher for all regions. Figure 1: Historical prices for autumn (Source: AEMO) It should be noted that prices in both 2012 and 2013 were affected by a carbon tax, which was subsequently repealed in 2014. Since 2015 there...

09 Jul High solar generation vs spot prices in Queensland

Posted at 08:45h in Edge Insights, Electricity, Energy Markets, News, Renewables, Solar by Alex Driscoll

Solar generation and its impact on spot price is a topic of major discussion, particularly in the ‘Sunshine State’ of Queensland where there is a continuous pipeline of solar generation development. This raises the question: is strong solar generation having an impact on spot prices, and if so, is it lowering or increasing prices? Increasing Large-scale Solar Penetration in the NEM It is no secret that solar generation has increased dramatically over the last 12-18 months. From 1 January 2018 to 30 June 2018 (inclusive) the average daily production of large-scale solar generation in Queensland was only approximately 14.2 MW, only accounting for 0.085% of total Queensland generation. (Source: AEMO) For the six...

06 Jun Retailer Reliability Obligation Final Rules Package

Posted at 17:18h in Electricity, Energy Markets, News by Nick Clark

Yesterday the Energy Security Board (ESB) provided an overview of the final package of proposed amendments to the National Electricity Rules (NER) (final Rules) to implement the Retailer Reliability Obligation (RRO or the Obligation) and takes into account stakeholder feedback. It should be noted that South Australia is undertaking a separate process in relation to how the national framework may have to be amended or altered to take into account the framework that will apply in South Australia (including that the South Australian Minister may trigger the RRO sooner than under the national framework). The RRO originated from the National Energy Guarantee. As outlined in the ESB's Final Rules Package, the RRO...

20 May LNP Inertia Continues

Posted at 10:03h in Electricity, Energy Markets, News, Renewables, Solar, Uncategorized by Nick Clark

In a surprise outcome the LNP maintained leadership over the weekend noting that it remains unknown whether or not the LNP will form a majority government. Energy and climate were at the heart of this election with Labor putting forward material initiatives that would increase investment in renewable energy generation (increased funding to the CEFC) and reduce emissions through the extension of the safeguard mechanism, amongst a number of other initiatives. The LNP are less ambitious and maintain the emissions reduction target of 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030. The LNP will extend the Climate Solutions Fund by providing additional funding to the Emissions Reduction Fund which is the reverse...

15 Apr Queensland spot prices – March vs April to date

Posted at 15:59h in Electricity, News, Renewables, Solar by Nick Clark

In Queensland, we have observed lower daytime spot prices since the beginning of April, relative to March averages. Taking a closer look at half hourly average spot prices seen so far in April, we can see that between 8am and 4pm spot prices have been softer than the same periods in March. Following this, spot prices are higher in the evening peak periods. Whilst it is a very small data set, this is the relationship that many in the market expect to evolve. Softer spot prices in the day will motivate generators to price more aggressively (price higher) in the evening peak to increase earnings which have been lost during the day. Should...