Australian Chart of the week | VRE pays more as PFR helps reduce coal FCAS costs

In our previous ‘Chart of the week’ in November 2020, we reviewed the increasing percentage of causer pays cost that solar generators bear due to their generation profiles and how this results in them paying significantly more of the causer pays cost as a ratio of the generation they provide. More than six months on, there has been a significant shift in some of the causer pays factors, mostly from coal and wind generation.

From what we can see, solar, for the most part, continue to pay the most in causer pays. The seasonal trend is broadly lower causer pays over the winter period and then higher factors over summer. Interestingly, wind in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 had a significant spike in causer pays factors. We can see that this was driven by significantly increase factors from Telstra Energy which accounted for almost 5% of all causer pays payments in February.

Ben Cerini

Ben Cerini

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