This report presents an independent review of market outcomes from Western Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) in Q1 2024.
Download the full report (PDF, 4.7 MB)
See also the RenewEconomy article covering the report (8 April 2024).
The material contained in the review is based entirely on publicly available data and is intended to complement the data and insights published by AEMO and other WEM stakeholders.
Some high-level observations from Q1 2024 market outcomes are offered below:
The shape of the WEM demand curve has irrevocably changed
Despite a hot summer where peak demand records tumbled, the impact of rooftop solar on the shape of the system demand curve is evident even on the hottest days.
The plot below shows the average time-of-day system demand curve in February 2024 and February 2016 (the last really hot Summer in WA). In past summers, the WEM demand curve used to have a single hump that gradually rises through the day and peaks in the later afternoon (at 4-5pm). But rooftop solar has eaten away at the demand in the middle of the day and a two-humped demand curve is now the norm, with the peak shifting later into the evening (at 6-7pm).
Even on the record peak demand days, the effects of rooftop solar can still be seen:
The system is becoming more dynamic than ever
The WEM can now go through dramatic changes in system demand within just a few days. For example, the plot below shows the system demand over a 9 day stretch from 1 February 2024 to 10 February 2024. A then record peak demand of 4,175 MW was reached on 1 February 2024, but only 3 days later, the minimum demand had dropped to just 800 MW.
For a little bit of context, the lowest minimum demand recorded in 2020 was 978 MW. So in just 3 days, the system can go from a record breaking peak demand to a low minimum demand that would have been a record 3 years ago.
Kwinana BESS is doing what you’d expect it to do
Kwinana BESS 1 (KBESS1) is the first and currently the only operational large-scale Battery Energy Storage System in the WEM (commissioned in Q4 2023). After suffering a hiccup post-commissioning, KBESS1 has been operating as expected ever since:
As can be expected from a load-shifting BESS, it tends to charge up during the day and overnight and discharges into the evening peak (and occasional morning peak).
Download the full report (PDF, 4.7 MB), which includes the following additional information:
- System demand duration curves and monthly time-of-day averages
- Generation mix
- Volume-weighted energy prices
- Average time-of-day Essential System Services prices and cleared quantities
- Total WEM spot market costs
- Facility level metrics (duration curves, time-of-day averages, capacity factors, spot revenues and average energy capture prices) for the following selected facilities:
- Bluewaters BW1-G2
- Collie G1
- Muja G7
- Kwinana GT2
- Newgen Kwinana CCG1
- Kwinana Swift GT1
- Alinta Pinjarra U1
- Kwinana ESR1 (KBESS1)
- Collgar Wind Farm
- Merredin Solar Farm
- Warradarge Wind Farm
- Yandin Wind Farm