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.
Friday 21 May 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 8587MW, and this is from the current total of 69 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 – 489MW (2.35PM)
Daily Maximum – 1950MW (8.10AM)
Average Wind Generation – 1179MW
Total Generated Power – 28.29GWH
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 2.0%
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 622MW of 27500MW – 5.55PM – 2.26%
Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 4.9%
Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 13.73%
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
This was another of those days when wind generation was low. That average of 1179MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor (CF) of just 13.7%, and that was sixteen percent lower than the year round average. As you can see from the data, that low point was just 489MW at a CF of only 5.7%, and at that time wind generation was only delivering 2% of all the generated power, and the daily power delivery only came in at just less than 5%. Even with such a low high, that difference between the low and the high for the day was still 1450MW.
*****
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
Tony Taylor
Sat 05/22/2021
The top graph has a vaguely sinusoidal shape. Maybe that’s what the dumb shills think is wind generation.
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TonyfromOz
Sat 05/22/2021
Tony, (you, not me)
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
Yeah, I saw that and actually smiled for once when it comes to wind generation, thinking of the irony.
That’s actually the first time I have seen that when it comes to wind generation, over all these years now of looking at the data and graphs on a daily basis.
Now that wind generation has that larger Nameplate, it is more pronounced, because with lower total power you might not see something like that, so obviously that sinusoidal shape.
And anyway, ask the average person what ‘sinusoidal’ means, and in 99 cases out of a hundred, all you’ll get is a dumb look, so that word might only be the province of people trained in electrical theory.
However, it’s actually almost 180 degrees out of phase with actual power consumption which is highest at the early evening around 6PM, when this wind graph is almost at the low point at that time.
Even then, with such a low average power generation across the day, wind still only delivered less than 5% of all the generated power.
Again, thanks for the comment.
Tony. (me, not you)
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Tony Taylor
Sat 05/22/2021
Hi Tony You,
For the record, I’m actually a lecturer in power system electrical engineering at a Tafe in Melbourne. We teach – or rather taught, since the program just wound up – the power companies’ testers, designers and system operators. In fact, the program wound up as a result of the slaughter of the system architecture by bulk subsidised renewables.
So not a boffin, more a nuts and bolts lecturer – or skin effect, Stockbridge damper, nodal analysis lecturer.
I’ve discovered across the last 15 years how hopelessly ignorant Joe Average is about the power system, so I have no faith in Joe cottoning onto the more complex aspects of network device integration. On the upside, I take satisfaction from accurately predicting network instabilities vis-a-vis rooftop solar, and as far as I’m aware, was the first to term the Big Battery a “network support device” instead of its wilder claims to be a source of generation.
Anyhoo, keep up the good work. I’m a keen reader about power systems.
Tony Me
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TonyfromOz
Sun 05/23/2021
Tony,
Uh oh! You might be the person who points out some of things I write about which might be awry at times, and I would guess there are some of them.
If you read my bio, you’ll see that I only have an Associate Diploma in Electrical Engineering, a nothing really, just enough to add some credence to what I write about. During those 25 years in the RAAF, I spent the last six years teaching the trade to new people. I had only been an Aircraft Electrical Tradesman all that time, rising through the ranks and hence away from the actual hands on work. So, when they told me I was posted to Wagga Wagga to become an Electrical Trades Instructor, that threw me a bit, because even though I knew the trade, teaching it was an entirely different thing altogether, and I had no idea if I could actually do that. However, after the first few times in front of a class, with the nerves jangling, I found that I not only enjoyed it immensely, but became relatively good at it, or so I was told. Also, teaching the trade reinforces all the things you learned during that earlier time when I was one of the students, and I learned things I had forgotten, and even more.
Then, when I started here at this site in March of 2008, now 13 years ago, the Site’s owner asked me if I wanted to contribute regularly. Again, I had no idea what to write about, so I thought I would just do it with something I had some knowledge in, and that was Electrical Power. I actually thought that would (a) not last all that long, and (b) people would not be interested in the slightest, as it was all too technical engineering based information.
However, the thing that surprised me the most was that people actually were interested in something like that. My task then was to (try and) write about it in a way that made it easier to understand, and because of that, well, simplification aspect, then the complexities of the detail would be frowned on by purists in the Electrical Engineering field.
Since I started writing about it, I have probably learned more about it than in those earlier years of actually ‘doing it’. The chasing down of everything is the best part, because I find so much, and here I look for factual information, and not ‘opinion’.
The whole thing is a constantly evolving process, and while I think I’m pretty well versed in it all, I see new things about it all, more than I would have thought possible.
From that, if I am still learning more about it as I go, then the ‘average Joe’ has literally no hope whatsoever, and that makes it easier for the plethora of disinformation that is out there to become accepted as fact.
The hardest thing to wrap my head around is that it’s going to take a major ‘crash’ situation before people finally start to ask the (correct) questions.
I just have to keep ‘plugging away’.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words, and also the extra comment.
Tony.
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