Queensland’s energy transition in one day: Record wind, strong batteries, persistent curtailment

Queensland set two new instantaneous power generation records on Sunday March 15. First, the share of wind in the state’s grid hit a new high of 29.6 per cent just before four o’clock in the morning (3:55 am) and second, battery output hit a new high net share high of 16.6 per cent at 6:15pm.

The timing is instructive: The wind record was set in the pre-dawn period, while the battery record was set in the evening ramp. It’s a reminder that different technologies are now shaping different parts of the Sunshine State’s demand curve.

The same Sunday also saw meaningful daytime curtailment of renewables generation which, based on the chart’s average curtailment of 335 megawatts (MW), implies about 8 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of curtailed energy across the day.

With prices around -$8 per megawatt-hour (MWh) through the daytime curtailment period, this looks to have been mainly economic curtailment, rather than a scarcity-driven operational event.

Another notable datapoint for the day is that the Queensland flexibility premium (battery discharge price less charge price) was only $80/MWh. So while batteries set a new output-share record in the evening, the intraday spread was still relatively modest against the level of midday surplus.

Image: Geoff Eldridge, GPE NEMLog

Taken together, the day shows three things at once:

– Strong overnight wind contribution;

–  Strong evening battery participation, and;

– Continued midday surplus / curtailment pressure in the solar window.

All told, it’s a useful snapshot of how the Queensland supply mix is evolving across the full day, not just at the daily peak in renewable output.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn, here. Reproduced on Renew Economy with permission.