Why are Tasmanian electricity prices spiking to over $2,000 per MWhr?

Tasmanian electricity is supplied by their Govt owned mostly hydro and lesser wind & gas fired generation.
Why is that Tasmanian wholesale AEMO prices spike to over $2000 per MW hour twice in recent days?
There is only one supplier – Hydro-Electric Corporation owned by the Tasmanian Goverment. Nemwatch for current generation and AEMO for prices and demand charts and AEMO NEM dispatch overview. Obviously Hydro Tasmania is in a dry spell and in order to conserve water levels will buy Victorian power through BassLink when prices suit them – see the AEMO NEM dispatch overview for interstate flows in real time.

4 thoughts on “Why are Tasmanian electricity prices spiking to over $2,000 per MWhr?”

  1. Tasmanian Hydro storage isn’t particularly low. It was significantly lower this time last year.

    www.hydro.com.au/water/energy-data

    I thought the big advantage of hydro was the ability to quickly match supply to demand and thus avoid price spikes.

  2. Last year Hydro Tassie were battling to cope with the after effects of the BassLink breakage which ran down dam levels – recall they even turned to diesel to conserve dam levels a bit.
    So dam levels then maybe not a good guide to what Hydro Tassie would see as ideal at this time of year.

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