Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Monday 10th February 2020

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.

Monday 10th February 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 6960MW, and this is from the current total of 57 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 – 844MW (9.20AM)

Daily Maximum – 2040MW (9.35PM)

Average Wind Generation – 1544MW

Total Generated Power – 37.06GWH

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 3.16%

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 1719MW of 28770MW – 3.45PM – 5.97%

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 6.3%

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 22.18%

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

1. 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)
2. For total power in GWH, multiply the average daily power by 24, and then divide by 1000.
3. 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

Wind power generation fell on this day, and that average of 1544MW gave wind power a daily operational Capacity Factor of just 22.2%, well down on the year round average of 30%. On a typical working week and school day, overall power consumption rose considerably, up by a little more than 10%, and across the whole day, wind power delivered just 6.3% of all the generated power.

I mentioned that last Friday week, on the 31st January 2020, the day Australia recorded its largest power consumption for one day, that the largest wind plant in Australia, Macarthur wind plant went off line, and it has been off line since that day, now for almost two weeks, with zero output, and I was wondering why. One of our readers here, who follows these Posts on a regular basis, and leaves comments every now and then, Robber, chased it down for me, so thanks for that Robber. (That Comment explaining this is at this link, and just scroll down to the comments section at the bottom of that Post) Evidently there was a pretty violent wind storm around that area which brought down six or so of those large transmission lines, and these were part of the critical power transmission lines for the Interconnector between Victoria and South Australia. Work started immediately on the repair of this critical infrastructure, but in the interim, the Regulator, the AEMO has directed that some of the wind plants in this area curtail their power generation until repairs are completed. One of those wind plants in that area is the Macarthur wind plant, and that plant is just one of seven or eight in those two States which have been offline and delivering no power at all during these last 12 days now. That of itself takes a smallish chunk of power out of this daily data for wind power generation, and if I might make a wry comment on this, it was in fact hardly even noticeable to have that power missing from the data.

A further wry comment might be along the lines of just imagining what the media would have made of something like this had it been the failure of one of those Units at a coal fired power plant. They would have been all over it like a rash, but because it was wind power, nothing was said, and seriously, there would be very few in the media who would even notice something like this at all, and they would probably not be able to track it down in the first place, not really knowing where to look.

Again, thanks to you Robber for finding this for me. That’s why my doing something like this is in fact a good thing, because what it does is that it brings to bear different sets of eyes to look in places I don’t think of looking, and the more sets of eyes that are looking is a good thing, and then, when it is brought to my attention, I can also look at it, and if needed, explain further what is happening.

*****

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

Tagged: Australian Electrical Power Consumption, Australian Electrical Power Statistics, Australian Renewable Power, Electrical Power Load Curves, Wind Power Generation

Posted in: Australia, Climate Change, Electrical Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Wind Power