Load Advisor: Friday 17 April 2026

Predispatch prices across NSW, VIC, SA, and QLD are negative or near-zero through the bulk of the overnight period, making the next several hours the strongest load-shifting opportunity of the day. NSW prices are currently at $79/MWh but will turn negative from 08:30 AEST onwards, bottoming near -$23/MWh around 13:00 AEST before a sharp recovery after 16:30 AEST when prices rise back above $14/MWh. VIC is tracking similarly, with prices dropping into negative territory from 08:30 AEST and reaching a trough around -$18/MWh between 13:00–13:30 AEST, followed by the same late-afternoon rebound. SA mirrors this profile with the deepest negatives among the three interconnected regions, hitting -$15/MWh across multiple intervals between 11:00 and 15:00 AEST. QLD prices also turn negative from 08:30 AEST, with troughs near -$23/MWh around 13:00 AEST; the region shows a shallower overnight negative band (around -$9 to -$11/MWh) compared to VIC and SA but broadly the same pattern.

TAS1 is the structural outlier: predispatch shows prices holding in the $65–$96/MWh range throughout the entire forecast window, with no negative intervals. Load-shifting in TAS1 yields no price benefit today. WA1 data is stale and should not be used for today's scheduling decisions.

The strongest NEM-wide load-shifting window will be **08:30–15:00 AEST**, with the absolute trough concentrated in the **12:30–13:30 AEST** band across NSW, VIC, SA, and QLD. Flexible loads — EV charging, water heating, industrial batch processes, battery charging — should be scheduled into this window. The intervals to avoid are the current morning period (pre-08:30 AEST, where prices are still positive in the $55–$88/MWh range) and the post-16:30 AEST evening ramp, where prices will recover to the $14–$35/MWh range as demand picks up.

For operators with firm scheduling requirements, the secondary overnight band from **16:30 UTC (02:30 AEST +1) through 05:30 AEST** already shows negative prices in the -$8 to -$16/MWh range across NSW, VIC, and SA, and represents a reliable fallback window if daytime scheduling is not feasible. Savings against current reference prices are greatest in SA (up to ~$15/MWh negative versus the current $55/MWh reference) and VIC (up to ~$18/MWh negative versus $67/MWh), making those regions the highest-value targets for flexible demand response today.