Australian Daily Electrical Power Generation Data – Monday 21st May 2018

Posted on Tue 05/22/2018 by

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By Anton Lang ~

This Post details the daily power consumption data for the AEMO coverage area in Australia. For the background information, refer to the Introductory Post at this link.

Each image is shown here at a smaller size to fit on the page alongside the data for that day. If you click on each image, it will open on a new page and at a larger size so you can better see the detail.

Note also the scale change for some of the images. That scale (the total power shown on the left hand axis) has been changed to show the graph at a larger size.

Monday 21st May 2018

Total Power Generation All Sources

Here, the black line is the total power generation from every source. This is also the same as for total power consumption, which is slightly lower after minor grid losses are taken into account.

The Blue line is all fossil fuelled power generation. The orange line is hydro power generation. The purple line is wind power generation, and the red line is for solar power generation.

Both of those (exact) figures for total power consumption for the daily minimum and the daily Peak are taken directly from the AEMO site, adding up the totals for each of the five States in this coverage area.

Note the slight difference between Total Consumed Power and Total Generated Power. That indicates some of the losses in the grid system.

Daily Minimum Power Consumption – 17150MW

Daily Peak Power Consumption – 26970MW

Daily Minimum Generated Power – 18000MW

Daily Maximum Generated Power – 27500MW

Average Total Power Generation – 22600MW

Total Power Generation In GWH – 542.4GWH

All Fossil Fuels Total – Coal Fired and Natural Gas Fired Power Generation

Here, the upper black line is the total from all fossil fuels, and this is the same as the blue line in the image directly above.

The black line just under that top black line is the Sub Total just for coal fired power. Note here how closely that coal fired line follows the shape of the upper Load Curve, and this indicates that coal fired power can be ramped up and down to follow actual power consumption.

Daily Minimum Coal Fired – 13800MW

Daily Peak Coal Fired – 18500MW

Average Coal Fired Generation – 16700MW

Total Generated Power – 400.8GWH

Average Percentage Of Total – 73.89%

Natural Gas Fired Power Generation

This image for Natural Gas Fired Power Generation shows the gap between the total for all Fossil Fuelled Sources of power generation and Coal Fired Power Generation in the image directly above.

Note here how closely the shape follows the total power generation Load Curve in the top image, indicating how these natural gas fired plants are used to smooth out the load curve to match actual power consumption.

Note also that while coal fired power provides the bulk of the power, these natural gas fired plants are used to add more power to the system during those time periods during the day when consumption rises for the morning peak, and the main evening Peak

Daily Minimum – 900MW

Daily Peak -3350MW

Average Natural Gas Fired Generation – 1630MW

Total Generated Power – 39.12GWH

Average Percentage Of Total – 7.21%

All Renewable Power Generation Versus Total Power Generation

This Image shows just the gap between total power generation from every source and the total power from renewable sources only. It is the same image as the first image at the top here, only with the fossil fuelled total (the blue line) removed from the graph, As in that top image, it shows Hydro Power, (orange line) wind power, (purple line) and solar power. (red line) What I have then done is added the black line just above those coloured lines and this indicates the Sub Total of power from those three renewable sources only. This is to highlight the gap between the total power generation and the total from renewable sources alone.

All Renewable Power Generation (Does not include rooftop solar generation)

This image is the same as for the one directly above for all renewable power, only with the total from all sources removed from the graph. As the scale of the left hand vertical axis has now changed, you can better see the detail of all renewable power. Again, the orange line is for hydro, the purple line is for wind, and the red line is for solar, and the black line is the Sub total for all renewable power. The other colour just showing indicates smaller plants, mostly using biofuels as their fuel source, tiny plants adding up to a very small total and for a short time duration.

Daily Minimum – 3100MW

Daily Peak – 6300MW

Average Renewable Generation – 4270MW

Total Generated Power – 102.48GWH

Average Percentage Of Total – 18.89%

Hydro Power Generation

This image shows all Hydro power generation. It is the same as the orange line in the top image for power generation from all sources.

Again, note here that the shape of this load curve follows the shape of the main load curve for all power generation, in that it has similar peaks in the morning and for the man evening Peak. The coloured lines at the bottom of this graph indicate the power generation from each of the hydro plants in this coverage area.

Daily Minimum – 900MW

Daily Peak – 3750MW

Average Hydro Generation – 1760MW

Total Generated Power – 42.24GWH

Average Percentage Of Total – 7.79%

Wind Power Generation

This image shows the total power generated by every wind plant in this vast coverage area. It is the same as for the purple coloured line in the image at the top showing generation from all sources.

The total Nameplate for all these wind plants is just under 5000MW.

Note that the shape of this load curve does not follow the shape of the main load curve for total power generation. Wind power generates its power only when the wind is blowing, hence it does not follow actual power consumption levels.

Daily Minimum – 2200MW

Daily Peak – 3200MW

Average Wind Generation – 2410MW

Total Generated Power – 57.84GWH

Average Percentage Of Total – 10.66%

Solar Power Plant Generation

This image shows the total power generated from all the solar power plants in this coverage area. This is the same as for the red coloured line you can just see in that top image.

The total Nameplate for all these 16 solar plants is just lower than 1000MW.

Daily Minimum – Zero

Daily Peak – 370MW

Average Solar Plant Generation for hours of generation – 230MW (7.30AM till 5.30PM)

Average Solar Plant Generation across the whole 24 hour day – 100MW

Total Generated Power – 2.4GWH

Average Percentage Of Total across the whole 24 hour day– 0.44%

Rooftop Solar Power Generation

As this source of power generation is classed as ‘behind the meter’, it is not included in the total power generation. Note here that the State of Queensland (QLD on the legend under the graph) is broken down into four separate areas as this is the largest State with the largest number of installations.

While the total Nameplate changes often, the latest information is that the total is now 7800MW, and that is a large total. However, that total equates to 1.8 Million homes with panels on their roof. That equates to an average sized installation of 4.3KW. Most of the power is consumed by the homes with the panels, and what is fed back to the grid, while seemingly still high is spread across that huge number of installations across the whole of this coverage area.

Daily Minimum – Zero

Daily Peak – 3350MW

Average For Hours of Generation – 2130MW (7AM till 5.30PM)

Average Rooftop Solar Generation across the whole 24 hour day – 930MW

Total Generated Power – 22.32GWH

Average Percentage Of Total across the whole 24 hour day – 4.12%

Notes

  1. Finding Averages – On each graph there are 9 time points. Add the total at each time point together, and divide by 9. For coal fired power, I do this on a State by State basis (for the 3 States with coal fired power) and then add the total for each State together.
  2. For both solar power averages, I have used the average for a (half) Sine Wave which is 0.637 of the Peak value.
  3. For total power in GWH, multiply the average daily power by 24.
  4. The total percentages for coal fired power, natural gas fired power and all renewables adds up to 100%.
  5. The total percentages for Hydro, Wind, and Solar adds up to the total percentage for all Renewables.

Comments For This Day

This is one of those days I have been waiting for, so I can show you something by doing a relatively accurate comparison.

One of the unexpected things I have found, even after just the first week, is that coal fired power is relatively stable in the amount of power it generates, staying at close to the same average each day, and I was waiting for a day like this to show you something.

This Monday showed a large output from wind power and I wanted to see if it had any major effect on coal fired power. The average for Wind power across the day was 2410MW, and that’s a good day for wind power, and that output is at a Capacity factor of 48%, well above the yearly average of 30%.

So, what I wanted to do was to compare a day of good wind power to a day of low wind power, and see what effect it had on coal fired power. The correct manner to do this is to compare a work day with a work day, so here I have the totals from today and the totals for last Friday, when, realistically, being a working day, the total overall power generation should be relatively similar.

That was the case. The Average power generation for Friday was 22800MW and for this Monday, it was 22600MW, so relatively close, within 0.9%.

The average for wind power on Friday was 950MW, and for this Monday it was 2410MW, so an increase of 1460MW.

The average for coal fired power on both the Friday and Monday were the same, 16700MW on both days.

The difference was made up solely from natural gas fired power and hydro power, with natural gas 910MW lower and hydro at 760MW lower, so, with the overall lower by 200MW, that covers the increase in wind power, and the remaining 10MW is because solar power was 10MW higher on the Monday than on the Friday, neatly making up to equal totals for those averages all round.

So, in reality, whether wind power is high or low, it has no effect at all on the power generation from coal fired power. Any difference is adjusted with the use of natural gas fired power and hydro power.

Now, one of the (perhaps unintended) consequences of this is that even though wind power was considerably higher, the fact that they are using Hydro as the ‘adjustment factor’ here, then even though there is a slight increase for the average for ALL renewables, it is not as high as that increase in wind power might make it, so the average from all renewables only increased slightly, by around 3%.

So, even on a (supposedly) good day for renewables, the average delieverd from all AEMO recorded renewables, and then adding on the average from rooftop solar power (for the whole 24 hour day) that average from those renewables is still only 23% of the total required power. Consider now that coal fired power alone delivers 74% of that required power, well more than three times the total from every renewable source in the Country.

Anton Lang uses the screen name of TonyfromOz, and he writes at this site, PA Pundits International on topics related to electrical power generation, from all sources, concentrating mainly on Renewable Power, and how the two most favoured methods of renewable power generation, Wind Power and all versions of Solar Power, fail comprehensively to deliver levels of power required to replace traditional power generation. His Bio is at this link.

OzPowerGenerationTFO

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Posted in: Australia, Climate Change, Coal Fired Power, Electrical Power Generation, Hydro Electric Power, Natural Gas Fired Power, Politics, Public Opinion, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Wind Power