Interconnector Watch: Monday 13 July 2026

At 06:30 AEST, the standout mover is VIC1-NSW1, flowing 1029.73 MW from Victoria into NSW — sitting right at its 1029.73 MW export limit and binding. This is the dominant transfer in the NEM this morning, exporting Victoria's low-cost generation (VIC1 at $29.54/MWh) into the higher-priced NSW1 region ($81/MWh), and the $51.46/MWh spread reflects that the interconnector is fully utilised and unable to close the gap further. Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is also binding, flowing 151 MW from Tasmania to Victoria at its full 151 MW limit, pulling on TAS1's ultra-cheap generation (RRP $0.12/MWh) despite an active credible contingency reclassification on the Gordon-Chapel St 220kV lines overnight — that reclassification has since been cancelled, but Basslink remains capacity-constrained regardless. Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) is a small negative flow of -53.4 MW (NSW to QLD) and is also binding at its -55.4/-53.4 MW limits, a minor contributor given its scale.

QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is flowing 391 MW from NSW into QLD, well within its 415.56 MW export limit and non-binding — spare headroom here is helping cap the NSW1-QLD1 spread at $8.73/MWh ($81 vs $89.73/MWh) despite QLD1 carrying the highest mainland price. Heywood (V-SA) is barely active at -17.36 MW (SA to VIC) and sitting exactly on its import limit, technically binding in a directional sense, while Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is flat at 0 MW. SA1 prices are near zero ($7.96/MWh) alongside TAS1, but limited interconnector capacity to VIC/NSW is preventing further arbitrage of that cheap supply into higher-priced regions.

Settlement residue notices show the V-SA/Murraylink corridor and VIC1-NSW1 have both been in and out of negative residue constraint status over the past 24 hours (NRM_VIC1_SA1 and NRM_VIC1_NSW1), consistent with the strong one-directional flow patterns we're seeing — largely a function of the wide VIC1 discount against NSW1 and QLD1