Interconnector Watch: Saturday 4 July 2026
All six major interconnectors are sitting well within their limits this morning, and none are currently binding, leaving regional price spreads to reflect underlying supply-demand balance rather than transfer constraints.
QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is flowing 594.8 MW from QLD into NSW, using around 52% of the 1,151.8 MW import limit - comfortable headroom despite the discretionary I-QN_600 constraint AEMO invoked on 3 July to manage NSW power system security, which capped transfers between 10:15 and 14:55. That notice has since been cancelled, and the flow direction aligns with the modest QLD-NSW price gap ($72.31 versus $79.63/MWh). Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1), the smaller QLD-NSW link, is running just 25 MW in the same direction against a 104.9 MW limit, still constrained by the N-MBTE_1 set following an unplanned outage of Directlink's No.1 leg on 1 July, which caps its transfer capability.
VIC-NSW is exporting 567.4 MW from Victoria into NSW, about 72% of the 792.2 MW export limit, consistent with VIC's lower price ($70.69/MWh) pulling energy toward the higher-priced NSW region. Heywood (V-SA) is exporting 60.1 MW from VIC to SA and Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) a further 27 MW in the same direction, both well under their respective 170.1 MW and 107 MW export limits, keeping SA's price ($70.98/MWh) closely aligned with VIC. The earlier S-ACPA constraint from the 1 July Angas Creek to Para line outage remains logged but isn't currently binding on V-SA flows.
Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is importing 173.8 MW from Victoria into Tasmania, using 47% of the 370.3 MW import limit. The T-GTSH_N-2 constraint tied to Tasmanian lightning-related contingency reclassification on the Sheffield-George Town lines was cancelled on 3 July, so Basslink is trading unconstrained. TAS1's price ($71.68/MWh) sits mid-pack, in line with this moderate import flow. Overall, with every interconnector below 75% utilisation and no active binding constraints, today's regional price spread across the mainland is narrow (a $9/MWh range from V