In providing the market with the information it needs to provide security of supply, AEMO publishes a limited amount of “predispatch” data, which is AEMO’s forecast for the near term future in the market (based on generator’s current offers to the market, and AEMO’s assumption of what demand will be).
AEMO produces 2 different predispatch runs, as follows:
(a) Every 5-minutes they update a 60-minute look ahead of DISPATCH prices. This data is NOT made available through NEM-Watch (but let us know if you are interested, as we have other ways we can supply this to you).
(b) Every 30-minutes, AEMO updates a look-ahead of TRADING prices that run out till 4am tomorrow or (after 12:30pm each day) till 4am the next day. This data is updated in NEM-Watch.
The predispatch data updated by NEM-Watch includes the price, demand, interconnector flow and constraint limits, and available generation forecast for each trading interval.
This data can be used within NEM-Watch as follows:
Charts
The Price, Demand and Available Generation charts display predispatch data for all commodities. Note that you must be looking at trading (not dispatch) data.
Predispatch data is denoted in the chart by a shaded background.
Playforward
The same way you can playback through market history, you can also play-forward through predispatch data in 30-minute steps.
Simply click on “playforward” and then the play button. The display will step through sequentially to reflect what is currently predicted to occur at each trading interval into the future.
Coupled with judicious use of the Screenshot feature, this playforward can be a very powerful tool.
Predispatch in alarms
To make your job a little easier, we have provided the facility in the Local Alarms feature for you to trigger alarms based on the predispatch data (the current run) out a certain number of trading intervals into the future.
For instance, you can set up an alarm to alert you if the spot price is forecast to be high (or an interconnector constrained) in any of the next 4 trading intervals (i.e. in the next 2 hours).