Originally Posted by
Bushmiller
You are correct with your statement that electricity prices have fallen dramatically during the "sunny" hours and indeed at times they go to zero dollars or even a negative price,, but it is not consistent and neither do power stations have to generate at their maximum load all the time. Most stations can ramp down to a minimum amount of generation during periods of low pricing and develop strategies to combat these low prices. The last ditch effort is to wear the below economic price as that is still cheaper than coming offline and having the added cost of a restart. Certainly in time the price will be so poor that stations will have to close but we are not there yet and until satisfactory means of storing electricity are developed the coal stations will be there for a long time yet.
The stations that are about to close, such as Liddell, are old, at the end of their useful life, too expensive to repair and would have been due to close anyway.
Although daytime prices are low, for the moment, the night time market is buoyant as the 2022 Q1 is showing.