Australia - Increased output from renewables, with a near-zero fuel cost, also nudged more coal and gas out of the generation market
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator, milder temperatures and record levels of renewable energy drove electricity demand to its lowest levels for any December quarter. AEMO said in its quarterly report released on Wednesday.
“Electricity futures prices saw steep falls in the mainland states through to the end of the quarter” after the price limits were imposed on 9 December, said Violette Mouchaileh, an AEMO executive.
The average price of $93/megawatt-hour(66.03/megawatt-hour) across the national electricity market (NEM) that serves eastern Australia was less than half the $216/MWh ($153.37/MWh) cost in the September quarter. Still, it was almost 80% higher than for the final three months of 2021. Renewable energy from wind, solar and hydro supplied an average of 40.3% of power in the NEM, a record for any quarter since the NEM started in 1998.
The government hailed the early signs of a retreat in wholesale power prices as early proof that its price caps were having an effect on household bills. However, wholesale prices make up only about a third of retail costs and are subject to external events, such as an extended fault at coal-fired power plant, or heatwave-driven spikes in demand that could erase price falls.
“Output from wind and grid-scale solar grew strongly as new facilities were connected and commissioned,” AEMO said. Even with relatively calm days producing the lowest recent quarterly utilisation rate, total wind farm output exceeded any previous December quarter.
Wholesale costs may also have been lower due to a drop in gas prices from record highs in June and July. At an average of $17.79/gigajoule(12.63/gigajoule), though, the price remained two-thirds higher than a year earlier.
Source: The Guardian