Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Saturday 25 December 2021

Posted on Sun 12/26/2021 by

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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 25 December 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 – 1082MW (12.10PM)

Daily Maximum – 4764MW (7.20PM)

Average Wind Generation – 2624MW

Total Generated Power – 62.97GWH

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At The Low Point For The Day – 4.3%

Percentage Supplied By Wind Power At Peak Power For The Day – 4674MW of 22000MW – 7.45PM – 21.25%  (Mid afternoon Peak with rooftop solar added was 25310MW at 11.35AM)

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – 12.3%

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 30.56%

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

On this day, wind generation was higher than it was on the day before. The daily average for this day of 2624MW gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor of 30.56, and that was right on the year round average. You can see that wind generation was lower in the middle of the day, and then rose quite a lot in the mid to late afternoon, so that at the usual time of the evening Peak of maximum power consumption, wind was delivering 21.25% of all the generated power. Now, while that seems a high percentage, when a similar power generation on any normal day would result in a way lower percentage, the reason it was so high on this day is that it was Christmas Day, the one solitary day of the year when power consumption is at its absolute lowest, and while that goes for overall total power consumption across the whole day, it is also a similar situation for the usual evening Peak, and here if you notice, that Peak for the day was a lot later than usual, and was at 7.45PM instead of closer to 7PM, and in the cooler Months, closer to 6.30 to 6.40PM. You can also see that the difference between the low for the day and the high was quite large for this day, and that gap was 3682MW. Now, when green followers see one of those coal fired Units drop off line, and there is a subsequent loss of power around 500MW, they complain loud and long that those coal fired Units are so unreliable. That power generation gap for this day of 3682 is the equivalent of losing SEVEN of those large scale coal fired Units, so, umm, does that effectively mean that wind power is really really unreliable?

Okay, I mentioned above that this day of all days, Christmas Day, is the day of lowest power consumption for the year, and these two graphs of power consumption show just what I mean here. The graph on the left is the total power generation from every power plant source for Christmas Day, and the graph at right shows the power generation from the same power plants for 18 December, just seven days before, and for comparison sake here, both days are Saturdays, because working week days have higher power consumption than weekend days. (Here, I have made the graphs smaller so that they fit the page, alongside each other for comparison, and if you click on each individual graph, it will open on a new page and at a larger size so you can better see the detail.) Firstly, note that the shape of both graphs is somewhat similar. coming from a medium high point, going lower and then a slight rise, the afternoon slight dip, and then the rise to the usual evening Peak, and then it falls away again. However, look closely at the left side vertical axis. See how the Christmas Day graph has the upper measurement of 22 (and that is 22GW, or 22,000MW) and when you compare that with the graph on the right, well, that upper measurement is 28, (so 28,000MW) so the scale of the graphs is different.

You can see that both graphs start at Midnight with both power consumption figures at that time showing a little higher than 20,000MW. On Christmas Day, the overnight low point is 17,000MW while the week before, the low point was 18,500MW, so on Christmas Day, it was lower by 8%, and that’s a substantial amount, 1500MW. Then, there is then a slight rise to the morning peak. On Christmas Day that total was just 17,500MW, while the week before it was 19,200MW, nine percent higher. Then there was the dip to the mid afternoon low. On Christmas Day, it fell to 16,500MW, and the week before it fell to 18,800MW, fourteen percent higher. Then it rises to the usual evening Peak of maximum power consumption. On Christmas Day, it rose to 21,600MW while a week before, it rose to 27,600MW, a whopping 28% higher.

The overall total power generation from all the power plants across the whole day for Christmas Day was 452GWH. Just seven days earlier, that total power generation from all the power plants was 520GWH, and that was a quite large, well, very large really, fifteen percent higher, and here keep in mind that for the sake of better comparison, both days are weekend days, the Saturday, and power consumption on working week days is around five to seven percent higher even than these weekend days.

On this one day of the year, no one is at work, no shops or stores are open. Everything is shut up tight, so that the usual power consumption from all of these is at its absolute lowest, and even with everyone at home, then Residential power has increased by a large amount, overall power consumption is still lower on this day than on any other day of the year. To add to this, rooftop solar power is used on a greater basis because more people are at home consuming that power rather then being at work and school and not using that rooftop power.

Again, what all this shows so eloquently is that even with everyone at home, and consuming more power in their homes on this one day than on any other day of the year, overall total power consumption still NEVER GETS LOWER than around 17,000MW, and that’s almost two thirds of the year round average for daily power consumption.

Christmas Day, that power consumption outlier for every year, just another of those things that people do not even notice when it comes to power consumption.

*****

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

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Posted in: Australia, Climate Change, Electrical Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Wind Power