Australian Chart of the week | No averages allowed: a look at recent NEM spot prices

2020 was a tame year for the National Electricity Market (NEM), with few contingency events of note (apart from the Q1 separation of Victoria (VIC) and South Australia (SA)) and wholesale spot prices trending to their lowest in over five years. In contrast, 2021 has taken an eventful turn with a coal unit explosion in Queensland (QLD), fears of flooding at a coal mine in VIC, and a short wind drought to boot.

There has been a lot of commentary on time-weighted average prices following these events. So, in this issue of the ‘Chart of the week’, we take a “no averages allowed” approach looking at the recent trends in prices by visualising every half-hourly price from 2019 to 2021 – all 228,000+ of them.

Shaz Billimoria

Shaz Billimoria

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