Post #4370667
2026-08-04 08:56 UTC
The generation from Coal sank to 0 MW in the delayed data. Diesel/Oil picked up which if I recall correctly is the most expensive generation on grid.
Because our wholesale price is set by the cost of the most expensive generation type needed at that instant the entire wholesale price rockets up to that high price instead of being a bit more of a generation average.
It's one of the weird ways that power shortages (though this was an outage/UFE) perversely benefits the gentailers who aren't building more cheap generation - they tend to own the high price setters.
#AlexsPostsAboutPower
Replies (1)
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@alex@fedi.smith.geek.nz 2026-08-04 09:07
This is another perfect example of why BESS is so so helpful. It's a fast instant response generation. It props the grid up while other things come online for sustained (like the Diesel/Oil ones). There's also the gas fast start generation, one near me (Junction Road Power Plant) reaches peak generation from nothing inside 15 minutes (100MW). We should build more BESS instead tho. Anyway, grids settled back down to a sane price. Would happen on one of the colder nights when the grid was already under a lot of load wouldn't it... #AlexsPostsAboutPower