Interconnector Watch: Tuesday 2 June 2026

VIC1-NSW1 (Murraylink's AC sibling, the main Victoria–NSW interconnector) is the most consequential constraint on the NEM right now, flowing 1,145.58 MW from Victoria into NSW and sitting exactly at its export limit of 1,145.58 MW — it is binding. That ceiling is directly driving the $65.15/MWh price wedge between VIC1 at $3.11/MWh and NSW1 at $68.26/MWh: Victoria cannot export another megawatt northward to arbitrage the gap. Yesterday's negative settlement residue event on this same interconnector (NRM_VIC1_NSW1 constraint, active 1820–2000 hrs 1 June) has resolved, but traders should note the precedent given how tightly this link is running today.

Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is binding in both directions simultaneously — its import and export limits are both set at -150 MW, and it is flowing exactly -150 MW (Victoria to SA). This is a hard symmetrical cap, consistent with the Koorangie–Wemen 220 kV line outage constraint set V-KOWE, which has been active since 25 May and directly limits Murraylink alongside Basslink, VIC-NSW, and Heywood. The result is a negligible SA–VIC price spread ($2.86 vs $3.11/MWh) despite Murraylink running at its ceiling — Heywood (V-SA) is absorbing the remaining SA export at -229.45 MW (also Victoria to SA) against a non-binding limit of -635 MW, leaving substantial Heywood headroom unused. Separately, AEMO is today conducting Heywood capacity release testing, having raised the SA-to-VIC test limit from 550 MW to 600 MW under I-SV_HEY_600_TEST; once the test criteria are met the limit reverts to 550 MW while results are analysed — monitor for any intraday constraint set changes on V-SA.

N-Q-MNSP1 (the Directlink DC interconnector between NSW and QLD) is binding at its export limit of 49 MW, flowing north into Queensland. QLD1 sits at $97.96/MWh against NSW1's $68.26/MWh — a $29.70/MWh spread — and Directlink is fully saturated in the direction the price signal demands. QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is flowing 349.55 MW northward and is not binding against its 349.55 MW export limit, though it is right at the ceiling; any further northward dispatch pressure could tip it into a binding state. Note that the lightning-driven reclassification of the Armidale–Dumaresq 8C and Armidale–Sapphire WF 8E 330 kV lines as a credible contingency (invoked 16:07 AEST, 2 June) — which constrained both N-Q-MNSP1 and NSW1-QLD1 under N-ARDM_ARSR_1PH_N-2 — has since been cancelled at 21:09 AEST following the clearance of lightning activity. That constraint set is no longer active, freeing any headroom it had been consuming on the QNI corridor.

Basslink (T-V-MN