Interconnector Watch: Saturday 30 May 2026

Interconnector conditions at 06:30 AEST are dominated by two binding links that are directly shaping NEM-wide price spreads. VIC1-NSW1 (Heywood's northern counterpart, the VIC-NSW interconnector) is binding at its export limit of 982 MW, flowing north from Victoria into New South Wales. This ceiling is holding despite a $57.72/MWh price differential between VIC1 ($10.50/MWh) and NSW1 ($68.22/MWh) — the constraint is preventing arbitrage from closing that gap further. Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is also binding, locked at -150 MW in both import and export limits, flowing from SA into VIC at its rated capacity. With SA1 pricing at $10.62/MWh and VIC1 at $10.50/MWh, the spread across Murraylink is negligible, suggesting the binding condition here reflects a network or thermal constraint rather than a price-driven saturation event — consistent with the active V-KOWE constraint set (Koorangie–Wemen 220 kV line outage) which lists V-S-MNSP1 on the left-hand side.

Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 112.54 MW from VIC into SA against an export limit of 234.97 MW, sitting at roughly 48% utilisation and non-binding. The near-identical pricing between SA1 and VIC1 means this flow is doing little price convergence work right now. Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is flowing 77.77 MW from Victoria into Tasmania — at its current export limit of -77.77 MW, this is technically at the binding edge, though AEMO has not flagged it as binding in dispatch. TAS1 is the highest-priced mainland-connected region at $81.76/MWh, and with flow running toward Tasmania rather than away from it, the direction is counterintuitive relative to the price signal; network limits or inertia/frequency requirements are likely overriding the pure price arbitrage. QNI (NSW1-QLD1) carries 291.31 MW northward into Queensland, utilising 80% of its 365.42 MW export limit. With QLD1 at $72.50/MWh and NSW1 at $68.22/MWh, this flow is directionally consistent with the price spread, and headroom of roughly 74 MW remains before the export cap.

The active constraint notices add important context. The V-KOWE constraint set (Koorangie–Wemen 220 kV line outage, active since 25 May) is binding VIC-connected flows including VIC1-NSW1, V-SA, T-V-MNSP1, and V-S-MNSP1, which explains why the VIC-NSW interconnector is at its export ceiling despite the large price spread. The Murraylink dynamic rating model (VSML_RAT_LIM_DYN / SVML_RAT_LIM_DYN, active from 27 May) is now shaping pre-dispatch and PASA limits on Murraylink in real time. The earlier lightning reclassification event on the Yallourn–Rowville 7 and 8 220 kV lines has been cancelled as of 05:24 AEST, with the V-ROYP