Wind energy smashes output record in big blow across southern states

Wind energy smashed its output and market share records in Australia’s main grid on Friday, as the big blow from a major weather system swept across the nation’s southern states.

The new instantaneous output record was set at 7.25pm on Friday evening, when the total reached 8,132.3MW, according to data provided by GPE NemLog2,

This literally blew away the previous record of 7,417MW – set just over a week ago on Sunday, June 25 – by more than 715MW.

At the time of the new output record, the share of wind in electricity generation in the National Electricity Market was just under 29 per cent. But at 4.05am on Saturday, July 8, wind set a new share record of 39.43 per cent, beating the previous record of 36.55 per cent set in September last year.

The greater share occurred despite lower output and reflected lower demand in the early hours of the morning compared to the evening peak period.

Victoria also set a new instantaneous output record of 3,706.2 at 7.25pm on Friday.

And, although the weather front affect the southern states the most, the biggest single contributor to the increased output was Coopers Gap wind farm in Queensland, according to GPE NemLog2.