Interconnector Watch: Thursday 18 June 2026

Six interconnectors are active across the NEM right now, with three binding simultaneously — a notably constrained morning picture heading into the weekend.

VIC-NSW (VIC1-NSW1) is the standout, flowing 1,001.68 MW north from Victoria into NSW and sitting exactly at its export limit — binding at the cap. This is the primary driver of the $66.62/MWh price spread between Victoria (-$0.10/MWh) and NSW ($66.53/MWh). Victoria is effectively surplus, unable to push additional energy north to arbitrage the differential. QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is simultaneously binding on the southward flow, with 187 MW moving from Queensland into NSW against an import limit of -187 MW. With QLD at $65.69/MWh and NSW at $66.53/MWh, the spread is tight but the constraint is preventing NSW from drawing further on Queensland supply. Both binding northern interconnectors are therefore squeezing NSW from both directions — capped inflows from Victoria and capped inflows from Queensland — keeping NSW prices elevated relative to the south.

Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is also binding, carrying 155.01 MW westward from Victoria into South Australia at precisely its import limit of -155.01 MW. SA sits at -$0.09/MWh, near-identical to Victoria's -$0.10/MWh, and the binding Murraylink confirms SA cannot absorb any additional Victorian surplus — the link is already at capacity in that direction. Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 191.75 MW in the same west direction (VIC to SA) at 44% of its import capacity of 431.36 MW, and is not binding, providing some additional headroom on that corridor. The Kerang–Koorangie 220 kV outage notice (active since 9 June, constraint set V-KGKO) is directly limiting transfer capability across V-S-MNSP1, T-V-MNSP1, V-SA, and VIC1-NSW1 simultaneously — this ongoing network reduction is a material factor behind today's binding conditions on both Murraylink and VIC-NSW.

Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) and Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) are both at zero flow. Basslink carries an active constraint notice related to the APD A2 500/220 kV transformer outage (invoked 10 June, constraint set F-I\_ML\_APD\_LOAD), which is limiting T-V-MNSP1 transfer capability — Tasmania at $29.29/MWh sits well below NSW but above Victoria, and with Basslink idle any Tasmanian arbitrage into the mainland is currently unavailable. Directlink's zero flow reflects its limited 68.3 MW export capacity and an active automated constraint (CA\_BRIS\_593C7214 on N-Q-MNSP1) invoked for Queensland system security. A separate system strength notice for North Queensland (Q-NIL set, updated 18 June) further tightens the Queensland constraint environment. The combined picture is one of Victoria isolated by binding export constraints on both its major corridors, while NSW and Queensland remain price-coupled at around $65–67/MWh behind their own binding interconnector ceiling.