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Australia’s National Electricity Market Management Company – or NEMMCO - was established in 1998 to administer and manage the nation’s electricity grid.
The grid, which runs more than 4000kms from Port Douglas in Queensland to Port Lincoln in South Australia, is the world’s longest interconnecting power system, and NEMMCO’s job is not an easy one!
"We act as an intermediary between the generators who supply the power and the on-sellers who then on-sell the power to market customers," NEMMCO corporate communications general manager Paul Bird says.
"NEMMCO has two main operational centres, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. From those two main operational centres we can then control the grid across the five National Electricity Market states. Those states are Queensland, New South Wales Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania."
Each of the two control centres is run by a small team of just four or five operators, whose job it is to ensure that the amount of electricity supplied to the grid matches consumer demand.
The operators can send signals to the generators as frequently as every four seconds to ensure this balance is maintained.
"They monitor the demand levels within each state and often they’ll vary to a very large amount, depending on a whole range of factors, primarily weather," Mr Bird says.
"On very hot days the demand can go up 30 or 40 per cent in any particular state. They also keep an eye on consumer needs during the day.
"I know fairly recently in November there was a drop of about 300Mw in NSW during the Melbourne Cup as people turned to their TV sets and took time out from what they were doing to actually watch the cup!
"They also have a look at things like planned outages by generators to make sure that they’re taken into account during any particular day."
The complex computer system within the control centres displays the operating status of the entire grid and alarms alert operators to any problems within the network.
Every individual grid line can be studied when required in order to diagnose problems.
"In the event of a lightening strike or a bush fire, the high speed protection systems associated with the power line will detect that fault and open the circuit breakers and isolate the powerline from that fault," NEMMCO control room operator Robert Rigoni says.
Some sections of the grid can only carry limited amounts of electricity, and managing these system constraints – or bottlenecks - is also part or an operator’s duty. Once again it is the complex computer system that supports this task.
"NEMMCO manages constraints by use of a constraint dictionary – the dictionary contains thousands of constraint equations which can reflect the different possible technical parameters of the power system," Mr Rigoni says.
"The operators will invoke the constraint equations which best reflect the power system conditions at that time."
The NEMMCO control centres are also tasked with running the electricity spot market - the system by which electricity is bought and sold into the grid.
Every five minutes, generators will offer their electricity at a price which averages around $50 per megawatt hour. However this can surge to as much as $10,000 per megawatt hour if demand is high, or supply is restricted.
NEMMCO’s job is to process these offers, to ensure that the network is supplied in the most cost-effective way and that the lights across Australia never go off.
The grid, which runs more than 4000kms from Port Douglas in Queensland to Port Lincoln in South Australia, is the world’s longest interconnecting power system, and NEMMCO’s job is not an easy one!
"We act as an intermediary between the generators who supply the power and the on-sellers who then on-sell the power to market customers," NEMMCO corporate communications general manager Paul Bird says.
"NEMMCO has two main operational centres, one in Sydney and one in Brisbane. From those two main operational centres we can then control the grid across the five National Electricity Market states. Those states are Queensland, New South Wales Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania."
Each of the two control centres is run by a small team of just four or five operators, whose job it is to ensure that the amount of electricity supplied to the grid matches consumer demand.
The operators can send signals to the generators as frequently as every four seconds to ensure this balance is maintained.
"They monitor the demand levels within each state and often they’ll vary to a very large amount, depending on a whole range of factors, primarily weather," Mr Bird says.
"On very hot days the demand can go up 30 or 40 per cent in any particular state. They also keep an eye on consumer needs during the day.
"I know fairly recently in November there was a drop of about 300Mw in NSW during the Melbourne Cup as people turned to their TV sets and took time out from what they were doing to actually watch the cup!
"They also have a look at things like planned outages by generators to make sure that they’re taken into account during any particular day."
The complex computer system within the control centres displays the operating status of the entire grid and alarms alert operators to any problems within the network.
Every individual grid line can be studied when required in order to diagnose problems.
"In the event of a lightening strike or a bush fire, the high speed protection systems associated with the power line will detect that fault and open the circuit breakers and isolate the powerline from that fault," NEMMCO control room operator Robert Rigoni says.
Some sections of the grid can only carry limited amounts of electricity, and managing these system constraints – or bottlenecks - is also part or an operator’s duty. Once again it is the complex computer system that supports this task.
"NEMMCO manages constraints by use of a constraint dictionary – the dictionary contains thousands of constraint equations which can reflect the different possible technical parameters of the power system," Mr Rigoni says.
"The operators will invoke the constraint equations which best reflect the power system conditions at that time."
The NEMMCO control centres are also tasked with running the electricity spot market - the system by which electricity is bought and sold into the grid.
Every five minutes, generators will offer their electricity at a price which averages around $50 per megawatt hour. However this can surge to as much as $10,000 per megawatt hour if demand is high, or supply is restricted.
NEMMCO’s job is to process these offers, to ensure that the network is supplied in the most cost-effective way and that the lights across Australia never go off.
