Record output of renewable
energy, and solar in particular, pushed prices down across Australia in the
first quarter, with the exception of the country’s most coal dependent grid.
According
to new data released by the Australian Energy Market Operator on Tuesday,
average wholesale spot prices on the National Electricity Market eased eight
per cent from the same quarter last year, despite higher demand, and would have
fallen by three times as much were it not for a series of extreme weather
events.
“We
are increasingly seeing renewable energy records being set which is a good
thing for Australian consumers as it is key in driving prices down and NEM
emissions intensity to new record lows,” AEMO’s head of reform delivery
Violette Mouchaileh said in a statement accompanying AEMO’s latest Quarterly
Energy Dynamics report.
“We are increasingly seeing renewable energy records being set which is a good
thing for Australian consumers as it is key in driving prices down and NEM
emissions intensity to new record lows.”
The
QED report found that NEM wholesale spot prices averaged $76/MWh over the
quarter, but would have fallen a further $17/MWh to $59/MWh were it not for a
series of extreme weather events, including the storms that brought down
transmission lines and led to the loss of Victoria’s biggest coal generator,
Loy Yang A, on February 13.
The
only state to buck the trend was Queensland, which remains the most heavily
dependent on coal generation and with the smallest share of renewables (26 per
cent), and which also suffered from multiple heatwaves that helped drive its
average price up to $117/MWh.
Mouchaileh
says Australia is still witnessing a “north-south” divide on wholesale prices,
with the coal-dependent grids of Queensland and NSW ($87/MWh) having
significantly higher wholesale prices by the renewables-rich South Australia
($55/MWh), Tasmania ($67/MWh)and Victoria ($52/MWh).
Victoria’s
average would have been significantly lower ($37/MWh) were it not for the
dramatic events of February 13, which pushed wholesale prices up to the market
cap, and South Australia’s would have also been lower as it was affected by the
loss of transmission capacity.
Renewables
lifted their overall share of the total NEM supply to 39 per cent, up from 37.4
per cent in the same quarter the previous year, with grid scale solar jumping
18 per cent, distributed PV jumping 10 per cent and hitting record highs in all
states, and wind energy rising 5 per cent.