On 9 December, the UK experienced a negative day-ahead trading price for the first time, with prices for 03:00AM to 04:00AM UTC delivery on the hourly day-ahead auction dropping to -£2.84/MWh.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we take a look at a first for the GB market, negative day-ahead trading prices, and analyse how this trend could develop in the future.
Nick Palmer
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Low carbon generation
The Victorian Government launched Australia’s first offshore wind targets as part of its transition towards a net-zero emission future. According to the target, 9GW of offshore wind will be installed by 2040, nearly quadrupling the total wind capacity in VIC. In this Chart of the week, we dive into the...
Commercial and market outlook
SA’s reliance on wind is getting to a point where there is not much to do except importing from VIC and generating with expensive fuel, such as diesel, when wind speed is not at its best shape. In this Chart of the week, we take a closer look at South...
Energy storage and flexibility
Renewable generation records continue to fall in the NEM, with several dropping in succession over the last week. As the amount of renewable generation in the NEM increases (led by a world-leading uptake of rooftop solar), as does the amount of curtailment. As curtailment is essentially wasted energy, minimising it...
Low carbon generation
On 13 September, BEIS published the draft budget notice and draft Allocation Framework for Allocation Round 4 (AR4) of the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, scheduled to open in December 2021. BEIS set out a total draft budget of £265mn (in 2011-12 money) for AR4, meaning that total spend in...
Energy storage and flexibility
As the NEM continues to transition towards increased penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE), the use of the word ‘curtailment’ has also increased. While curtailments have historically been a natural part of market outcomes (i.e. generators withholding capacity at higher price points), the increased prevalence of curtailment of VRE is...
Low carbon generation
In the spirit of the Australian Olympic team, instantaneous wind generation in the National Energy Market (NEM) reached new heights during a blustery end to July. Output hit a record 6,427MW at 8:05 pm on 25 July, after breaking 6,000MW for the first time just the day before. In this...
Low carbon generation
This ‘Chart of the week’ examines the recent spell of low wind generation in Victoria and associated elevated prices. Previously, ‘Chart of the week’ issue 78 highlights the risk of wind droughts within the National Electricity Market (NEM) due to the high correlation of wind fronts both within states and...
Low carbon generation
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...
