Australian Daily Wind Power Generation Data – Monday 21 March 2022

Posted on Tue 03/22/2022 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.

Monday 21 March 2022

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 – 457MW (10.20AM)

Daily Maximum – 1462MW (12.10AM)

Average Wind Generation – 896MW

Total Generated Power – 21.50GWH

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 – 1166MW of 26570MW – 6.30PM – 4.39%  (Mid afternoon Peak with rooftop solar added was 28620MW at 4.15PM)

Average Percentage Of Overall Total Power Generation – %

Daily Operational Capacity Factor – 10.43%

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

The wind generation graph for this day marks one of those (extreme) times I highlighted in red text right at the top of this Post where I wrote that the change in scale makes the daily graphs look somewhat similar, and the specific change that makes this the most visible is the change in total power generation shown on the left side vertical axis, so, as I said, the graphs are best sized to fit the page. That was the ONLY reason I included that second graph under the main graph, where it shows the total wind generation in a green colour, and you can compare that to the overall actual power consumption, the black line at the top of this lower graph. And here, for this day, you can see just how low wind generation was for this day. I have now been detailing the daily wind generation for 181 weeks now, a little under 1300 individual days, three and a half years. In all that time, wind generation has only been lower than the total for this day on three occasions, and that was for three consecutive days last April, almost 12 Months ago, and it was just a little lower than this on those three consecutive days, and at that time, the total Nameplate for ALL these wind plants was lower than it is now, so that’s what makes this total so low. That average for this day of 896MW (from a total Nameplate of 8587MW) gave wind generation a daily operational Capacity Factor of just 10.4%, only ONE THIRD of the year round average, a full twenty percent lower than that average. You can see the low point there, and again, on that lower graph, the green coloured total is barely discernible above zero, where it hovers for most of the day. At that low point, as power consumption was close to its highest for the day, wind was delivering just 1.8% of all the generated power from every source. At the usual evening Peak of maximum power consumption even then with wind slightly higher, it was still only delivering 4.4% of all the generated power from every source. And even on a day of extremely low power generation, there was still a gap between the low for the day and the high of 1005MW.

Okay, one day like this in years. I really am not all that fussed that it IS that ONE DAY. What are we going to do, if wind generation is to become one of the major suppliers of power, and then we have days like this. You can’t just shut the Country down while you wait for the wind to pick up. And it sort of shows the truth regarding that hackneyed old meme that if you build more of them, then there’s always wind blowing somewhere or other. Here we have a case where the wind has abjectly failed across the whole network of wind plants ….. FOR A WHOLE DAY.

*****

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