Load Advisor: Thursday 2 July 2026
The overnight-to-early-morning window (00:00–06:00 AEST) is today's prime load-shifting opportunity NEM-wide, with prices across all five mainland regions falling to $0-45/MWh or into negative territory, before the morning ramp pushes prices back above $80-100/MWh from 07:00. VIC1 and SA1 are showing the deepest troughs, with predispatch prices sitting at -$4 to $0/MWh between 02:00 and 05:00 — effectively free energy for batteries, EV charging, or process heating that can shift into this window.
South Australia stands out for the sharpest contrast today: overnight prices near $0/MWh will surge to $138/MWh by 06:00, then keep climbing through the day, with predispatch showing extreme peaks of $487-875/MWh between 12:00 and 18:00 AEST. This is a signal for SA-connected flexible load (irrigation, industrial batch processes, commercial HVAC pre-cooling) to complete all shiftable work before 05:30 and avoid any operation during the afternoon peak entirely — the spread between trough and peak exceeds $870/MWh. NSW1 and QLD1 show more moderate but still material savings, with 00:30–05:00 pricing in the $22-43/MWh range against forecast afternoon peaks of $100-115/MWh, a saving of $70-90/MWh for load shifted into this window.
TAS1 remains the most stable region today, with prices ranging narrowly between -$4 and $50/MWh across the full 24 hours — flexible load here has lower urgency but overnight (02:00-05:00) still offers the best value. VIC1's predispatch flags a brief but extreme spike to $350/MWh at 12:00 AEST, reinforcing that midday-to-late-afternoon load in the southern regions should be minimised today, particularly in SA1 where afternoon prices are forecast to hold above $480/MWh from 14:00 through 18:00.
For operators managing NEM-wide flexible load today, the clearest instruction is: schedule all shiftable consumption into the 00:30–05:30 AEST window, prioritising SA1 and VIC1 where negative-to-near-zero pricing offers the largest savings, and ensure load is curtailed or shifted out of the 12:00–18:00 AEST period, especially in SA1 where forecast prices exceed $480/MWh for six consecut