NEM Overview: Thursday 28 May 2026
NEM-wide spot prices are elevated across all regions at 06:30 AEST, with Western Australia leading at $137.64/MWh, followed by NSW at $120.67/MWh and Victoria at $110.50/MWh. Queensland sits at $107.97/MWh, SA at $103.86/MWh, and Tasmania is the softest market at $97.52/MWh. The $40/MWh spread between WA and Tasmania is notable for a winter overnight session. Grid stress scores at 85.3 out of 100, indicating the market is operating under meaningful pressure, consistent with elevated prices across all five NEM regions simultaneously.
NEM-wide renewable penetration sits at 29.2% against total demand of approximately 22,517 MW across the interconnected regions. SA is the standout at 63.9% renewable, driven by 944.71 MW of wind against demand of just 1,422 MW, with a carbon intensity of 0.2169 tCO2/MWh. Wind is doing significant work across the NEM tonight — NSW has 578 MW, Victoria 577 MW, and Queensland 1,195 MW — but with solar at effectively zero across all regions and thermal plant carrying the bulk of overnight load, the NEM carbon intensity score sits at 48.2. Tasmania is at 100% renewable, dispatching 1,158 MW of hydro, though Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) shows zero flow, leaving that generation fully within the island. Victoria's mix at 10.8% renewable and 1.032 tCO2/MWh reflects 4,357 MW of brown coal and 542 MW of gas OCGT in dispatch.
On interconnectors, NSW1-QLD1 is binding at its import limit of -517.45 MW, meaning Queensland is pushing power south into NSW at the interconnector's cap — a notable constraint that is contributing to the price differential between the two regions. The VIC1-NSW1 flow of 324.61 MW is running north from Victoria into NSW, adding further supply into the state. Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is carrying just -12.93 MW westward into SA, well inside its limit, while V-SA is also binding at -24.34 MW, with SA drawing modest imports from Victoria.
The active market notice requiring attention is the NESBESS1 non-conformance in NSW, where the Neoen Big Battery at Broken Hill deviated by 99 MW during a five-minute interval yesterday evening — a material dispatch excursion for a battery asset that warrants monitoring if it recurs in today's dispatch. The Marketnet Firewall maintenance scheduled for Saturday 30 May (09:00–17:00 AEST) will cause connectivity disruptions for Lan-2-Lan VPN participants using the NSW datacenter endpoint; affected participants should confirm failover to the Queensland termination point is configured before tomorrow's window opens.