Are you on Flick Electric? HVDC cable unplanned outage.

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Aredwood

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Topic # 188951 11-Dec-2015 01:40

As above - unplanned outage on the High voltage DC cable that links the north and south islands. Looks like buying wholesale power is going to be expensive today. Transpower advice notice - PDF Already approx $25 per MW more expensive in NI.

Might want to switch off the hot water cylinder and any other non essential loads until they fix the HVDC cable.

[edited to add]

Bad time for this to happen as the Otahuhu B gas power station has been decommissioned. And they are in the process of decommissioning the Southdown gas power station as well. And since the weather has been dry for awhile, there wont be much water available for the Tongariro and Waikato hydro stations.

andrewNZ

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Reply # 1448485 11-Dec-2015 06:30

I'd be interested to know the final impact of this on someone's bill.

I'm seriously considering flick, but its this type of thing that makes me a bit nervous about it.

Location: Dunedin

k1wi

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Reply # 1448488 11-Dec-2015 06:54

Looks like they already fixed it, just in time for the morning peak.

https://www.systemoperator.co.nz/sites/default/files/interfaces/can/CAN%20Unplanned%20Outage%20HVDC%20Pole%202%2C%20HVDC%20Pole%203%201940065578.pdf

lchiu7

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Reply # 1448889 11-Dec-2015 21:00

I'm on Flick. I occasionally check the 30 minutes prices from here

http://www.electricityinfo.co.nz/comitFta/five_min_prices.main

You do need to know what node youi're one. For example living in Khandallah my node is Kaiwharawhara which is on the old Hutt Rd. Node is KWA011

Today the 30 minute prices got quite high but only for a few periods and only my son was at home on the computer :-(

The trading periods are 30 minute intervals so TP 20 or about 9:30 am the price was $79 but at TP32 or 15:30 it got to $421. Since we had other electricity on, his computer and other base loads (fridge etc.) wouldn't have been more than 2-3 units during each hour.

The actual effect on your bill is pretty minimal. $421 per MWh is about 42c/Unit (kWh). Assuming you were running 5kWh load during that time, that's $2.1 and would hardly break the bank. I've seen 30 minute prices hit $1000 MWh and it really doesn't make that much difference. Plus sometimes Flick absorbs those abnormal loads

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timmmay

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Reply # 1448898 11-Dec-2015 21:19

I've been on Flick since around April, I guess. In that time there have been no spikes that have made a significant different to the bill. I have email alerts set for when power goes over preset numbers ($140/MWH is my lowest one), which it only did at the end of summer / start of winter.

I use EM6 for watching the price, and Nodewatch for alerts.

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Aredwood

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Reply # 1448947 11-Dec-2015 23:06

Thankfully I was only running baseloads when the evening spike happened. (less that 0.5kW per 1/2 hour) And it was just afterwards that I started the spa and my boiler. (So lucky that I missed the spike).

I have been meaning to make some sort of electronic display so I can check spot prices without needing to fire up a computer. And add some automatic load control.