Interconnector Watch: Wednesday 22 July 2026

Three of the NEM's six interconnectors are currently binding at their limits, and Victoria is exporting hard across every one of its borders this morning. VIC-NSW (Basslink's neighbour, the VIC1-NSW1 link) is flowing 1,283 MW into NSW and sitting right at its export limit — fully utilised. Heywood (V-SA) is exporting 488 MW from VIC into SA, also pinned at its export ceiling, while Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) adds a further 171 MW VIC-to-SA, similarly capped. Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is flowing 367 MW from TAS into VIC, running close to its import limit but not formally binding. QNI (NSW1-QLD1) shows a modest 51 MW flow from QLD into NSW, well within its wide band and not binding, and Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) is flat at zero.

This flow pattern lines up cleanly with today's price spreads. VIC sits at $37.48/MWh, the cheapest region in the mainland NEM, while NSW is at $80/MWh, SA at $80.44/MWh and QLD at $80.84/MWh — all clustered roughly $43/MWh above VIC. With Heywood and Murraylink both maxed out, VIC cannot export any further into SA to close that gap, which is why SA is holding at parity with NSW and QLD rather than converging toward VIC pricing. Similarly, the VIC-NSW link being fully utilised at 1,283 MW is capping the arbitrage into NSW, leaving a persistent $42.52/MWh spread between the two regions. TAS, importing via Basslink at 367 MW, is pricing at $46.09/MWh — a moderate premium to VIC reflecting the constrained transfer capacity rather than a binding limit today.

Constraint-wise, TAS network conditions are the main story behind Basslink's tight utilisation. AEMO reclassified the Gordon–Chapel St No. 1 and No. 2 220kV lines as a credible contingency at 06:07 AEST this morning due to lightning, invoking the F-T-CSGO constraint set which sits on Basslink's left-hand side — this is actively limiting Basslink's dispatch flexibility. This follows a string of similar lightning-driven reclassifications on the Farrell–Reece and Gordon–Chapel St l