Interconnector Watch: Thursday 13 August 2026
Both Victoria–South Australia links are binding at 06:35 AEST, and SA's price premium reflects it. Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 155.45 MW into SA against a 155.44 MW export limit — essentially at full capacity — while Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) sits at 161.63 MW, also against its 161.63 MW limit. Both interconnectors are maxed out moving Victorian generation into SA, yet SA's regional price of $208.87/MWh still trades $110-115 above VIC1 ($93.18/MWh) and NSW1 ($99.41/MWh), confirming SA is import-constrained rather than price-connected to the rest of the mainland right now. With both links saturated, no further arbitrage relief is available into SA until local generation responds or demand eases from its current 1424 MW.
Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is carrying 431.92 MW from Tasmania into Victoria, well under its 459 MW export limit (94% utilised), non-binding. This flow is helping keep VIC1 prices soft relative to SA1 despite TAS1's own price sitting lowest in the NEM at $83.54/MWh, with 1162.6 MW demand — Tasmanian generation is finding a home in Victoria at a healthy differential.
On the NSW-QLD-VIC side, flows are directionally mixed but comfortably inside limits. VIC1-NSW1 is exporting 255.75 MW from Victoria into NSW (37% of the 687.68 MW export limit), consistent with VIC1's slightly lower price. NSW1-QLD1 (QNI) is flowing 482.54 MW from QLD into NSW, using 45% of its 1078 MW import capacity, while Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) is moving a modest 17 MW the same direction. Neither is binding, and NSW1 and QLD1 prices are near parity ($99.41 vs $93.21/MWh), consistent with unconstrained trade between the two.
Three active constraint sets remain live on the NSW-QLD boundary: the unplanned Bayswater–Sydney West No.32 330kV line outage (invoking N-BWSW_32 since 10 August), the Tarong circuit breaker outage (Q-HATR, since 8 August), and an ongoing automated security constraint (CA_SYDS_59839EB2) protecting NSW system security. All three constrain equations touching NSW1-QLD1, N-Q-MNSP1 and VIC1-NSW1, but none are currently binding the observed flows — QNI and Directlink have ample headroom under present demand conditions. Traders should watch for these limits tightening if NSW demand rises through the day, given the constraint set was invoked precisely to manage transfer capacity across that corridor.