regional qld — QLD1

The Queensland spot price sits at $82.21/MWh at 06:30 AEST, a significant retreat from the morning peak where prices sustained above $140–$177/MWh between 17:00 and 18:00 AEST during the demand ramp. Total demand currently stands at 6,488 MW, well off the day's peak of approximately 8,714 MW recorded around 17:45 AEST. The price profile over the past 24 hours has been pronounced: near-zero and negative prices dominated the overnight trough from roughly 21:00 through to 13:30 AEST (UTC+10), before demand and prices climbed sharply through the morning peak window. The current $82.21/MWh sits below the elevated morning average but above the overnight floor, reflecting demand settling in an early-evening plateau.

The generation mix at 06:30 AEST is heavily weighted to black coal at 2,737.67 MW, with hydro contributing 85.68 MW, solar at 3 MW, and gas OCGT at a negligible 0.06 MW. Total reported scheduled generation is approximately 2,826 MW against a demand of 6,488 MW, indicating a substantial portion of supply is sourced from semi-scheduled and unregistered rooftop solar or via interconnector flows not captured in this dispatch snapshot. Renewable penetration sits at just 3.14% at this interval — consistent with post-sunset conditions where utility solar has dropped off. Carbon intensity is 0.8524 tCO2/MWh, the highest point across today's carbon history; the overnight period recorded intensity as low as 0.6397 tCO2/MWh around 13:00 AEST when renewable penetration reached approximately 27%, illustrating the material difference solar generation makes to Queensland's grid carbon profile during daylight hours.

Predispatch forecasts for the 07:00 AEST interval (21:00 UTC) are clustered in the $75–$85/MWh range, with the most recent runs pointing to approximately $78/MWh. The 07:30 AEST interval is forecast at $58–$59/MWh on the latest runs, suggesting further softening as demand continues to ease into the late evening. Load window modelling confirms this trajectory: near-zero and negative prices are anticipated from approximately 08:00–10:00 AEST (22:00–00:00 UTC) through the overnight trough, with prices reaching as low as -$13 to -$14/MWh in the 13:00–14:00 AEST window tomorrow as overnight baseload and any early-morning solar overlap suppresses prices. Flexible load operators and battery operators should note this extended low-price window as a charging opportunity ahead of the morning ramp.

The most directly relevant active market notice for Queensland today is a non-conformance event on unit MUCRKSF1 in QLD1, declared by AEMO for a brief 5-minute period on 7 April. Two additional QLD-touching notices are active: a Telstra Brisbane inbound telephony outage is scheduled for 16 April (0000–0600 AEST) affecting AEMO's Brisbane inbound call redundancy, with calls auto-rerouted via Sydney — a low-impact operational awareness item for participants using AEMO's support lines. An inter-regional transfer limit variation remains active following the 5 April unplanned outage of the