Aidan,

I listened to your link and reported what I heard, generation from wind was lower than expected just as the demand was higher.

Note that at lower wind speeds, the power available for generation is proportional to the wind speed cubed. ie. the power available when the wind is 13 km/h is 220% of 10 km/h, and with losses included is 300% more. So a tiny change in wind speed means a relatively large change in generating capacity. Given the above, and the 6hr lead time before starting Pelican point, accurate forecasts are very difficult. Starting up PP for only a few hours standby would be the most expensive power on the network. Notably Wetherill and his cronies have 20/20 hindsight.

The network was running exactly according to the rules and forecasting at their disposal. If the government is happy to change the rules to have more standby available, then they will pay more on average for power.

The "Melbourne research institute" consists of 5 people incl a secretary, and 4 others, none of which have any experience in power generation. The article claim that a tiny diesel gen power station with peak capacity of 50MW is gaming a 3000MW network is laughable.