Power shares

[Tomtom]

Maybe there has been political pressure from their major shareholder. We will find out in the next few hours.

After the most recent IPCC report I wouldn't think the government would want to be seen to endorse the use of Huntley. That said, it might raise the appalling birth rate.

[Beagle]

The demand today is just not there. Starting those large coal units isn't as simple as pushing a button. The boiler has to be warmed up slowly, and once steam is bening generated then the temperatures and pressures have to be brought up in a controlled manner. Once there is sufficient steam pressure, then the turbine has to brought up to speed very slowly to allow the blades and casings to warm and expand at the same rate. It is a 12 hour process and cost as much as runnning the plant for 12 hours. Imagine doing all that and then finding that it was only needed for 3 hours.

Maybe there has been political pressure from their major shareholder. We will find out in the next few hours.

You'd think so wouldn't you ? Its a serious embarrassment to be having blackout's in the middle of winter on the coldest night of the year. How is that consistent with Cindy's consistent "Be Kind" mantra ?

People are already worried about Health authorities playing Russian roulette with Covid at the ports / border...they don't need another worry about whether they can keep their kids warm !!

[Dlownz]

Did any one pay attention to the spot price last night.
At one point it reached $300,000 a megawatt. That's $3000a kW comparing to the usual price of. 20cents.
Today it peaked around $80000 for a short time.

[Beagle]

Did any one pay attention to the spot price last night.
At one point it reached $300,000 a megawatt. That's $3000a kW comparing to the usual price of. 20cents.
Today it peaked around $80000 for a short time.

Makes my 3 year price locked supply agreement with Meridian at 15.56 c/Kwh look like a sizzling hot deal. Sadly, if I recall correctly I think that price lock finishes in February 2022.

[Dlownz]

Makes my 3 year price locked supply agreement with Meridian at 15.56 c/Kwh look like a sizzling hot deal. Sadly, if I recall correctly I think that price lock finishes in February 2022.

I'm priced locked to end of this year. Day night meter. 20 cents day, 9 cents night. Can't complain. Might have to look into solar this year

[kiora]

"Genesis: ‘Unique set of circumstances’ meant boiler was not on
A Genesis Energy spokesperson said it hadn’t expected to need one of its gas/coal boilers, but a “unique set of circumstances” had reduced North Island generation capacity at its Tokaanu hydro plant near Taupō and at the Waipipi wind farm.

The boiler would have then taken several hours to get operational.

Gale-force winds earlier in the day at Tokaanu pushed weed into the intake, and then a sudden decline in wind in the evening affected central North Island wind generation.

The Government is still trying to work out exactly where the problem started.
JOHN HAWKINS/STUFF
The Government is still trying to work out exactly where the problem started.
“There was no third Rankine [boiler] operating as there was sufficient generation capacity available to the market prior to the loss of generation at Tokaanu and sudden decline in wind generation that coincided with peak demand,” the spokesperson said.

“A Rankine unit takes several hours to become operational and would not have met demand in the circumstances during last night’s peak.”"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/pol...te-extra-power

[Jerry]

Genesis were warned by Transpower at 6am that there would be heavy demand that night. Genesis gambled that they would not have to start the third Rankine unit. They had plenty of time to do it, but chose as a commercial decision not to do so.

[Jantar]

Did any one pay attention to the spot price last night.
At one point it reached $300,000 a megawatt. That's $3000a kW comparing to the usual price of. 20cents.
Today it peaked around $80000 for a short time.

The final prices won't be that high. From the code (Market rules) "If a supply emergency causes forced power cuts (typically referred to as emergency load shedding) in one or both islands, the system operator may trigger scarcity pricing (when normal market operations cannot result in a price where supply meets demand). Once triggered, scarcity pricing sets a $10,000 per megawatt hour (MWh) price floor and a $20,000 per MWh price cap for the island generation weighted average spot price (GWAP) in the trading periods affected by the emergency. "

[Jantar]

Genesis were warned by Transpower at 6am that there would be heavy demand that night. Genesis gambled that they would not have to start the third Rankine unit. They had plenty of time to do it, but chose as a commercial decision not to do so.

They did NOT have plenty of time to start the unit. At 6:00 am a CAN (Customer advuce notice) was issued. These are low level notifications and such CANs are issued regularly, 12 in the last 5 days. The first formal notice was a warning issued at 4:48 pm. This was the first warning that the conditions was serious.

It takes 12 hours to start a Rankine unit from cold and then a further 2 - 3 hours to slow ramp it to full load. There was no way it was possible to start the 3rd unit and bring it up to load.

[Panda-NZ-]

What do we pay high electricity prices for... :\

Maybe trim the 10% gross dividend yields slightly.