Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Wednesday 07 April 2021

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.

Wednesday 07 April 2021

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 – 199MW (1.55PM)

Daily Maximum – 2181MW (12.05AM)

Average Wind Generation – 1002MW

Total Generated Power – 24.04GWH

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 0.8%

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 858MW of 25900MW – 6.40PM – 3.31%

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 4.4%

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 12.32%

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

As you can plainly see, wind power had another of those days where it proved without fraction of a doubt how absolutely useless it really is. That average for the day of 1002MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor (CF) of 12.3%. That 1002MW average is from a Nameplate of 8132MW. That average also does not realistically show just how useless it was, as at the low point for the day of 199MW (at a CF of only 2.4%, so just two in every hundred wind towers with their blades turning over and generating power) it was only delivering 0.8% of all the generated power, so not even a pitifully low one percent. Even as wind slowly struggled back from the low point, it was still only delivering 3.3% of all generated power. And even though wind was at a low point at the highest for the day, there was still just under 2000MW between the low and the high for the day.

I have included a second graph at right, and this shows the total from the two States where there is the largest concentration of wind plants, Victoria and South Australia. Just in those two States, there are a total of 46 wind plants with a total Nameplate of 5066MW, so all up, that’s almost 63% of all the wind plants, all but two thirds of the whole fleet of them across Australia.

As you can see when you look at the States shown along the bottom of the image, you can see that just those two States are ticked, indicating this graph just shows the output from those wind plants. Above that are the coded names for each of those 46 wind plants for both of those States. Those 46 wind plants have a total Nameplate of 5066MW and around 2700 individual wind towers.

What I have done here is to indicate the low point for the day and circled it in the middle of the graph, at that time of 13.10 or 1.10PM, just after Midday. Now, if you look across to the left side vertical axis, this shows the total power generated. and again, I have circled that total. That is the total power being generated at that time, 1.10PM. That’s 19.4MW, the grand TOTAL generated power from 46 wind plants in two States with a Nameplate of 5066MW, so that meant all of those wind plants at that time were operating at a CF of 0.38% so just a tick more than a THIRD OF ONE PERCENT. So of those 2700 individual wind towers across those two States, at 1.10PM, only, wait for this, TEN of them were actually turning over and generating power.

Ten wind towers out of 2700 of them were operating at that time.

Please don’t even begin to try and tell me that wind power is a viable source of power generation into the future.

If anything performed as poorly as this, ANYTHING, it would be mercilessly ridiculed out of existence.

*****

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