The Power of Experience

The National Electricity Rules or NER require plant owners to have 24×7 communications with the market operator AEMO and 24×7 control of their plant – even a solar farm. And those staff must be competent and experienced enough to work quickly and effectively with AEMO. All plant must also follow dispatch targets and if material deviations are not corrected in minutes, then costs will accrue and penalties may apply.

Many new entrants have not met their expected investment returns. Some may blame “the market” but you can improve many aspects of revenue and cost if you know where to look. Squeezing 1 or 2 per cent out of inverters or turbines is important, but these gains can be dwarfed by improving how your whole asset performs the other side of the sub-station – in the market. We know where to look for these gains.

The NEM is a complex blend of physics, market forces and rules. The physics remains reassuringly constant but as we decarbonise, operational norms and rules are changing rapidly. As specialists in NEM Operations we live and breathe this complexity and the changes and translate their impacts for our clients. Whether it is constraint equations, bidding automation, FCAS calculations or self-forecasting, we strive to make these complex issues simple for our clients.

Creating and maintaining a 24x7x365 roster of people who are experienced in Australian power station operations to monitor your assets and manage issues within minutes, is a massive undertaking. Even for a mid-sized portfolio it makes little commercial sense to attempt this in-house. Thankfully Overwatch can provide you with that capability and remove the risks for a fraction of what it would cost you.