By Anton Lang ~
This Post details the daily wind power generation 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 that on some days, there will be a scale change for the main wind power image, and that even though images may look similar in shape for the power generation black line on the graph when compared to other days, that scale (the total power shown on the left hand vertical axis) has been changed to show the graph at a larger size to better fit the image for that graph.
Saturday 4th January 2020
Total Wind Power Generation
This image shows the total power generated across the whole day by every wind plant in this vast AEMO coverage area for Australia.
The total Nameplate for all these wind plants changes as each new wind plant comes on line delivering power to the grid. That current Nameplate is 6702MW, and this is from the current total of 55 wind plants.
Note that the shape of this wind power load curve does not follow the shape of the main load curve for total power generation, and that is seen in the image below, the solid black line across the top of the image for that graph. Wind power generates its power only when the wind is blowing, hence it does not follow the actual power generation Load Curve, which is also the the exact same shaped curve as for actual power consumption.
For this data, I have added the times for the daily minimum, and the daily maximum, to show how they do not correlate with the actual times of minimum power consumption (around 4AM each day) and maximum power consumption, the evening Peak. (at around 6.40PM in Winter and earlier during the Summer Months.)
Daily Minimum – 2100MW (3.30AM)
Daily Maximum – 3540MW (10.25AM)
Average Wind Generation – 2852MW
Total Generated Power – 68.45GWH
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 11.12%
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 3369MW of 29750MW – 12.35PMPM – 11.32%
Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 11.5%
Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 42.55%
Wind Power Generation Versus Total Power Generation
This image shows the total power generated from all the wind plants in this AEMO coverage area, and compares it to the overall total generated power from every source of power generation, which is the black line at the top of the graph. Wind power is the green coloured area, along the bottom of this graph.
While the green colour in this image looks to be a different shape to the graph above, keep in mind here that the scale is completely different, and that green coloured Wind total is the same as for the image shown above, only with the scale changed so it can fit onto the graph.
Notes
- Finding Wind Power Average – On the graph, there are 25 hourly time points, starting with midnight and finishing with midnight. I have added the total at each of those hourly time points together, and divided the resultant total by 25 to give an average in MegaWatts. (MW)
- For total power in GWH, multiply the average daily power by 24, and then divide by 1000.
- For the Capacity Factor, that is calculated by dividing the average wind generation by the current Nameplate and then multiplying that by 100 to give a percentage.
Comments For This Day
Power consumption was higher than usual for a Saturday, and the temperature was probably the biggest factor in that.
The average for wind power for the day of 2852MW gave wind power a daily operational Capacity Factor of 42.5%, more than 10% higher than the year round average, and across the whole day, wind power delivered 11.5% of all the power, little more than a tenth, on a good day.
*****
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.
OzWindPowerGenerationTFO
Robber
Sun 01/05/2020
Tony, what happened in NSW on 4/1? Average price $1283 with a spike up to$14,700, Vic $27, Qld $110?
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TonyfromOz
Sun 01/05/2020
Robber,
sorry I’m late getting back to you here. This took quite some chasing down. Good exercise though, as it shows me other things that add up to more knowledge, and also how fast the AEMO works to keep the grid stable when there are problems.
Basically, what happened here was that the Interconnector to Victoria failed, and they replaced that loss of power with power from gas fired plants, and that was costly to get them on line at such short notice.
Now, I can just say that, but the chasing it all down exercise was a little more involved than that, and I can show you, so that you can get the idea that I’m not just attempting to explain it away.
Go to this link, and it will open in a new window, so you can go back and forth from screen to screen without too much hassle. This shows the distribution of power load curves for the AEMO coverage area. When it opens, this is the default screen, showing the last seven days, so you need to do a little work here to locate the problem.
This will work at any time, as all you need do is locate the actual day and date of this event, 4th January 2020.
At that default screen, first, click on 3d on the day tab at upper left, and this narrows it down to 3 days of load curves, and alongside that, click on the 5min tab.
Now, above that click on the NEM button, and when the drop down menu appears, click on New South Wales. Okay then, what you see on the upper graph is the load curves for all power sources, and the lower image shows the cost structure, and on that lower image you can see the vertical spike at 3.30PM to that $14700/MWH cost, shown at the upper right of that lower image.
Okay, now see the small coloured squares alongside each power source at the right. Well if you click on each colour it will take that power source colour out of the large upper load curve image, so untick all the colours, so that only the purple coloured IMPORTS one is still ticked, and that shows just the power imports INTO NSW, all of them, the two from Queensland and the one from Victoria.
Now, see the square cost structure spike in the lower image, and compare that to the upper purple coloured imports image above.
See the big dip down in imports, just before the price spikes. The loss was 850MW from the high point to the low point.
Now ….. LEAVE that purple colour there and tick the small coloured boxes for Gas (OCGT) Gas (CCGT) and Distillate, and when you have done that, untick the purple Imports coloured box.
See how at the same time as the loss of the imports, the AEMO in NSW had to fired up those plants to replace the lost imports power. I then referred to the Aneroid site, and found that seven of those gas plants were called on line at very short notice, as well as the super expensive Distillate plants as well, and all of this added 1060MW back into the NSW grid system, and that is why the price spiked to that huge amount and stayed there for all the time those plants were on line.
Now, at the same time, as they lost that Interconnector into Victoria, NSW is still getting imports from Queensland, so they were ramped up to max as well, further increasing the cost for wholesale power. As the Interconnector trip with Victoria was sorted out, those power plants all had to stay on line. until it all settled down, at around 10PM, after the evening peak had passed.
It took some work to find it, but all of this happened in real time, as you can see, again showing that the AEMO will do all it can to keep the power on, and here you need to understand that at that time NSW was consuming its most power for some time. almost 13000MW in all.
For some perspective, now that just the gas plants are showing on that upper load curve image, now click on the black coal small coloured box, and watch the change in that image. as the small gas plants are all but disappeared with the huge overlay of coal fired power.
I hope this was (relatively) easy to understand.
Tony.
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PA Pundits - International
Mon 01/06/2020
Wow, Tony., That’s quite an intensive effort to find details!
You know what you’ve shown here really applies to all countries foolish enough to try to replace what works with the Untried and Imperfect source of electricity.
When do you the the good citizens of NSW will finally tell the Pols., that enough is enough?
I doubt if any Leftist Socialist Politician will own up to this expensive farce.
I’m basing it on our American state of California. They’re blaming Everybody and Anything else for their follies about Brushfires, Electrical generation, etc. They’re all MAD!
BTW, Do you think we could ship then to NSW? Free of charge, of course. 🙂
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TonyfromOz
Mon 01/06/2020
Ed,
thanks for the kind words.
The point is that in all of this, the details are easy to track down, well, sometimes a little more difficult, but they are there. However, no one even bothers to look, and if they do go looking, there’s every probability that they have no idea what they are actually looking at. It then becomes easy to blame it all on whatever they want to blame it on, and climate change is the easiest thing. Then it just becomes self perpetuating, and the real reason just gets lost, or is so technical (as you can plainly see here) that people don’t understand it. It’s never explained to ‘the people’, because the technical side of it allows them to cover it all up, and people just believe what they are told.
Any attempt to then explain it ‘as it really is’ then just can be passed off as going against the meme.
When the truth really does come out, people will want some ‘hard’ answers, and that won’t be easy to cover up.
Tony.
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