Across the recent summer window since 1 December, the four mainland regions of the NEM have taken sharply different paths. Demand reached, and in places eclipsed, long-run highs, yet price responses were anything but uniform.
This article looks at how the price and demand relationship has been tracking this year, and compares the results with the previous years starting from summer of 2022 where:
- New South Wales spot prices has shown volatility, but not near the levels indicated by predispatch forecasts
- Queensland high summer demand has yet to arrive to test the outcome
- Victoria summers are facing a structural change
- South Australia has been volatile and when on the knife-edge, spot prices can escalate
