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 8 July 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 – 458MW (4.05PM)
Daily Maximum – 2852MW (12.05AM)
Average Wind Generation – 1653MW
Total Generated Power – 39.67GWH
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 1.7%
Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 784MW of 31560MW – 6.20PM – 2.48%
Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 6.1%
Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 19.25%
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
Wind generation was a little higher on this day than it was on the day before, but again, not by all that much. That daily average of 1653MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor of 19.25%, and that was around ten percent lower than the year round average. Yet again note that as overall daily power consumption rose, wind generation fell away, so that around the time of the usual daily peak, wind generation was close to its low for the day, delivering just 2.5% of all generated power at that evening peak. The difference between the high for the day and the low was also high, and here on this day, that gap was 2400MW.
*****
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
Robber
Fri 07/09/2021
Tony, Not a great week for wind, delivering only 6.9% of demand or 1,700 MW, versus 9.4% or 2,300 MW for last 30 days, and 10.4% or 2,400 MW for last 12 months.
LikeLike
TonyfromOz
Fri 07/09/2021
Robber
thanks for this comment, and might I actually add ….. ‘timely’ comment.
As you know, I have been keeping this data now for almost three years, and the real advantage of that is I have three years of daily recordings to look back on, now 145 weeks, or 1,015 days worth of actual data.
I have been watching as this week unfolds, and just yesterday, I checked back over the last two years of that data for the weekly totals for the same corresponding week of the year for both 2020 and 2019.
There’s another huge High Pressure System approaching, so the results for this coming Saturday and Sunday will not be all that much better than for the five days already gone.
The rolling Capacity Factor (CF) for this week is just 15% for the five days, and it would take two huge days to get that up even to 25%, and that won’t be happening.
I suspect that with two more days like today, then the CF for the week will remain around 15% to 17%, and that will be the lowest weekly CF for the last 12 Months.
So, yesterday, I checked back for the same week last year, 2020, and the CF for that week was 17%, and that also was the lowest for the same preceding 12 Month period.
When I checked back for 2019, it was the week before this same week which was the lowest for 12 Months as well, and that figure was just 14% for that week.
So the same week for the last two years, or three readings has been the lowest week for each of those years.
Now, even I know that is just an odd coincidence, but it is really strange that it has been this same week.
That’s why CF is such an important part of all this with respect to wind generation. Even though the Nameplate has increased with each of these years, and because of that, overall power generation has also increased, that percentage figure tells the real story of it all.
As regards the overall power delivery percentage for wind generation of overall power generation, that is also lower, further lowered because we are in Mid Winter, and overall power CONSUMPTION has also increased with the last five days across the whole day, noticeably at the usual evening peak, all of those peaks over 30,000MW, and for each day it has been over that 30,000MW mark for three and more hours around that usual time in the evening of high power consumption.
Sometimes keeping data might be considered as not really relevant, but this gives a very accurate indicator as to just how poorly wind generation does deliver its power.
Tony.
LikeLike