Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Saturday 19th 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.

Saturday 19th December 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 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 – 464MW (10.50AM)

Daily Maximum – 2737MW (11.45PM)

Average Wind Generation – 1604MW

Total Generated Power – 38.49GWH

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 1.8%

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 492MW of 25800MW – 11.25AM – 1.91%

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 6.9%

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 19.72%

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

On this day wind generation fell away markedly, and at around 11AM, it was down to 464MW, That’s from a Nameplate total of 8132MW, so at that time wind generation was only operating at 5.7% of its capacity, so of around 4100 individual wind towers with turbines on top of them, only 250 of them actually had their blades turning at all, and that’s across the whole Country, just 250 wind towers operational. That’s just flat out pathetic really. At that time wind power was only supplying 1.8%of all the generated power, and here, keep in mind that this is on the day of the week with the lowest power consumption, as is usual on weekend days everywhere. That daily average of 1604MW gave wind generation across the day a daily operational Capacity Factor of just 19.8%, ten percent lower than the year round average. And also keep in mind this is what we have to look forward to, with many many more of these things coming. What do we do when there are times like this, on days  like this? That’s something I have been saying for years now, since way back when wind generation only had less than half of the Nameplate it now has. The same very low percentages happened then, and they are still happening now, only because there are so many more of them, the problem is now much larger.

*****

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