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.
Sunday 10th June 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 – 18400MW
Daily Peak Power Consumption – 25730MW
Daily Minimum Generated Power – 19000MW
Daily Maximum Generated Power – 26200MW
Average Total Power Generation – 22100MW
Total Power Generation In GWH – 530.4GWH
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 – 15300MW
Daily Peak Coal Fired – 18800MW
Average Coal Fired Generation – 17300MW
Total Generated Power – 415.2GWH
Average Percentage Of Total – 78.28%
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 – 2320MW
Average Natural Gas Fired Generation – 1380MW
Total Generated Power – 33.12GWH
Average Percentage Of Total – 6.24%
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 – 2200MW
Daily Peak – 5100MW
Average Renewable Generation – 3420MW
Total Generated Power – 82.08GWH
Average Percentage Of Total – 15.48%
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 – 1450MW
Daily Peak – 3800MW
Average Hydro Generation – 2330MW
Total Generated Power – 55.92GWH
Average Percentage Of Total – 10.54%
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 5225MW.
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 – 400MW
Daily Peak – 2100MW
Average Wind Generation – 990MW
Total Generated Power – 23.76GWH
Average Percentage Of Total – 4.48%
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 – 400MW (Some spikes to 420MW on cloudy day at all sites)
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– 0.45%
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 – 3400MW
Average For Hours of Generation – 2100MW (7.30AM till 5.30PM)
Average Rooftop Solar Generation across the whole 24 hour day – 875MW
Total Generated Power – 21GWH
Average Percentage Of Total across the whole 24 hour day – 3.96%
Notes
- 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.
- For both solar power averages, I have used the average for a (half) Sine Wave which is 0.637 of the Peak value.
- For total power in GWH, multiply the average daily power by 24.
- The total percentages for coal fired power, natural gas fired power and all renewables adds up to 100%.
- The total percentages for Hydro, Wind, and Solar adds up to the total percentage for all Renewables.
Comments For This Day
This data is for the Sunday, again, the weekend, so less power consumption than on week days, and total power consumption at the minimum time, and also at the Peak were similar to yesterday, as were the power generation figures at those times also, and the average power generation for the day was only 100MW lower than for yesterday.
However, what was decidedly different today was that coal fired power was back up to its normal levels for the last three or four weeks, back up to over 17000MW for the average. That average across the day was 700MW higher, and most noticeably, at the Peak power time of 5.30/AM, it was actually 1200MW higher.
Because coal fired power provided the bulk of the power, and increased, then the requirement from other sources was a lot less.
The average for natural gas fired power was 1200MW lower, and that also was the same for the Peak, 1200MW lower.
Wind power increased from yesterday’s pitiful total, and was up to 990MW a rise in the average of 690MW. The High pressure weather system has moved East, replaced by a Low pressure with good isobar difference between the two systems giving good wind, hence wind power was up. Even at that average of 990MW, because it came from such a low base, the Capacity Factor for wind power on this day was still only just 19%.
The average for hydro power was 350MW lower.
Earlier this week, there were problems with some of the coal fired Units, when they went off line, taking a large supply of power away from the grid, and the hardest hit here was the State of New South Wales. Two of those large Units came back on line on this day, and that can be seen in the image at the right. The light blue line is the Unit at the Mt. Piper plant, and the yellow line is for the Unit at the Vales Point plant.
Note the time taken for large Units of this size to run back up to their maximum after major work, as everything in the complex system is tested at every stage. Each of these two Units can generate 660 to 720MW. While the whole process is complex, these large Units are quite robust in nature. Keep in mind here that the generator is the main ‘producer’ of the power here, and the rotor inside that generator can weigh anything up to 800 tonnes plus, and that rotates at full speed at 3000RPM, so three thousand rotations of that huge weigh every minute, 50 rotations a second, so that is an enormous weight to get up to that full speed. The Unit at Mt. Piper (blue line) took 8 hours to reach maximum, and then a small lowering for three hours and then back up maximum again. The Unit at Vales Point (the yellow line) takes around 14 hours to get back up to its maximum.
These two Units alone make up for the extra 1200MW that was available at Peak power time.
So, while this was seemingly a problem when it happened on the Tuesday and the Thursday, what this does is show how robust and reliable they really are, considering that the plant at Mt. Piper is 25 years old, and the plant at Vales Point is now 40 years old, and both of these plants are now older than the projected life span for any of the favoured renewable plants, wind and solar, which have a life span hoped to be between 20 and 25 years, but most likely 15 years at best.
Also keep in mind here, that at the time both of these Units were back at their maximum, around that Peak time of 6PM, just these TWO units were delivering more power than every wind plant in Australia was delivering.
WEEKLY DATA For Week Four.
Here, the Overall is 100%, so Coal + Natural Gas (NG) + Renewable adds up to that 100%
Hydro, Wind and Solar add up to the total for Renewable.
Rooftop Solar Power (which is behind the meter) is a percentage of the overall total and on top of that total.
WEEKLY TOTALS (In GWH)
Week Overall Coal NG Renewable Hydro Wind Solar Rooftop Solar
Week 4 3928.4 2815.2 419.52 693.68 443.66 236.3 13.72 132.36
Percentage of total 71.66% 10.68% 17.66% 11.29% 6.02% 0.35% 3.37%
ROLLING TOTALS (In GWH)
Week Overall Coal NG Renewable Hydro Wind Solar Rooftop Solar
After Week 4 15335.6 1342.4 1458.96 2534.24 1560.74 911.66 61.84 592.98
Percentage of total 73.96% 9.51% 16.53% 10.18% 5.94% 0.40% 3.87%
COMMENTS for this week.
With Winter now here, power consumption has started to rise, and this week, it was up by almost 50GWH, and for some perspective, that’s a rise of around 1.25% for the week.
The glitches this week with those coal fired Units saw a slight reduction only in the overall power delivered from coal fired power, down by almost three percent, and that lowered the rolling average for coal fired power by around 0.7%, but it is still the source of almost three quarters of all generated power in Australia.
What is now becoming evident after four weeks is just how natural gas fired power and also hydro are being used to equal out the power delivered when wind power is up or down.
While wind power had two really excellent days, it also had two astonishingly low days, and evened out across this week to average just 6% of all power needed. That was at a weekly capacity Factor of 27% and the rolling Capacity Factor for wind power after four weeks is 26%, still slightly lower than the year round average of around 30%.
You’ll notice solar power here, not rooftop solar, but the power delivered from solar plants, and notice how low it is, supplying only 0.4% of all power needed, an almost insignificant amount.
When so much power is required on a constant and reliable basis, it is evident where that is coming from, coal fired power.
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.
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Mon 06/11/2018
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