Interconnector Watch: Wednesday 1 July 2026
Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is the binding constraint in the NEM right now, flowing 78.67 MW from Victoria into South Australia and sitting flush against its export limit of -78.67 MW (import direction to SA) — effectively 100% utilised. This lines up with the SA1/VIC1 price relationship: both regions are in negative pricing territory (SA1 at -$6.42/MWh, VIC1 at -$6.51/MWh), reflecting strong renewable output across the southern states and minimal spread between the two, with Murraylink capped out moving what surplus it can toward SA. Heywood (V-SA) is running well within its envelope, importing 62.45 MW into SA against a much larger 661.54 MW import limit and 345.99 MW export limit — comfortable headroom there, not binding.
QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is flowing 302.47 MW from QLD into NSW, well short of its 971.52 MW import limit, and Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) is carrying a modest 9 MW in the same direction against a reduced limit following an unplanned outage of its No. 1 Leg (constraint set N-MBTE_1, invoked 20:45 yesterday). This QLD-to-NSW flow is consistent with the NSW1/QLD1 price differential, with NSW1 at $93.64/MWh sitting just above QLD1 at $90.30/MWh — a tight spread given the interconnectors are well under capacity, suggesting no material transfer constraint is currently pressuring the differential.
VIC1-NSW1 is exporting 287.47 MW from Victoria into NSW, right at its export limit of 287.47 MW, indicating this link is also fully utilised, though not flagged as formally binding in the data. This flow is helping narrow what would otherwise be a wider NSW1/VIC1 spread — NSW1 at $93.64/MWh against VIC1's -$6.51/MWh is still a substantial ~$100/MWh differential despite the interconnector running at capacity, pointing to constrained transfer capability limiting further price convergence between the two regions. Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) shows zero flow with both limits set to 0, consistent with an outage or full de-rating, leaving TAS1 isolated at $53.12/MWh with no interconnector support currently available to arbitrage against VIC1's negative pricing.