Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Thursday 10th December 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.

Thursday 10th December 2020

New Wind Plants added to the grid.

Three new wind plants have been officially added to the grid as of this day.

Those three plants are:

(1) The first stage of the Collector Wind Plant on the Southern Tablelands in New South Wales. This adds the Nameplate for this wind plant of 113MW, and this constitutes the first half of this wind plant, which, when completed, will have 53 individual wind towers, each with a 4.2MW turbine/generator on top.

(2) The Crudine Ridge Wind Plant near Mudgee, also in New South Wales, with a Nameplate of 141MW, from 37 individual wind towers with 3.63MW turbine/generators on top.

(3) The first stage of the Moorabool Wind Plant near Ballarat in Victoria, and it has a Nameplate of 150MW, from 50 individual wind towers with 3MW turbine/generators on top. When completed, there will be an additional 54 wind towers.

All up, this is a total Nameplate increase of 404MW, and the new Nameplate total for all wind power of 8132MW, and there are now 67 separate wind plants. I have included the full image of the new total showing all 67 wind plants.

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 8132MW, and this is from the current total of 67 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 – 2122MW (3.05PM)

Daily Maximum – 4527MW (11.15PM)

Average Wind Generation – 3136MW

Total Generated Power – 75.26GWH

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 8.1%

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 2330MW of 27200MW – 12.45PM – 8.57%

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 13.3%

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 38.56%

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 was well up on what it was on the day before, in fact, a little more than double the output power of the earlier day. That average of 3136MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor of 38.56%, nine percent higher than the year round average. However, as you can see yet again, wind was low when overall power consumption was highest for the day, and at that low point, it was only delivering 8.5% of all generated power. Again note the difference between the low for the day and the high, again over 2000MW.

That new Nameplate total of 8132MW equates to a year round average power generation at the average Capacity Factor of that 29.5%, equating to just 2400MW, which gives some perspective, considering that this is 67 Wind Plants in all, and around 4100 individual wind towers with turbine/generators on top of them.

Incidentally, those new wind plants which came on line today. They all have towers of around 169 Metres from the ground to the top of the blades. Now look at the Sydney skyline with all of its huge skyscrapers. There are only 20 buildings taller than these current wind towers.

*****

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