Interconnector Watch: Friday 28 August 2026
QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is the standout mover this morning, flowing 877 MW from QLD into NSW — 83% of its 1,052 MW import limit into NSW — as Queensland's $98.68/MWh price sits roughly $16-20/MWh below NSW ($115.11), Victoria ($114.80) and SA ($118.88). None of the six interconnectors are formally binding right now, but QNI's utilisation is the tightest in the network and it's doing the most work arbitraging the QLD-NSW spread. Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1), the smaller NSW-QLD link, is also flowing north-to-south into QLD at 41 MW, a modest 36% of its 113 MW import limit, reinforcing the same direction as QNI rather than offsetting it.
Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is exporting 422 MW from Tasmania into Victoria, 92% of its 459 MW export limit — the highest utilisation on the network — consistent with TAS1's $103.03/MWh sitting below VIC1's $114.80. Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 223 MW from Victoria into SA, 44% of its 510 MW export limit, tracking the modest VIC-to-SA price differential ($114.80 vs $118.88). VIC1-NSW1 is flowing 116 MW from NSW into Victoria, just 14% of its 447 MW import limit, a light flow given the near-identical NSW1/VIC1 prices ($115.11 vs $114.80). Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) is sitting at zero, with both import and export limits set to 0 MW — effectively offline for settlement purposes.
No active binding constraints are reported in this dispatch interval, though several constraint sets remain live in the background: the NQLD system strength equations (Q_STR_NIL_XXXX series) implemented Thursday 27 August affect Queensland transfer limits, and the Tailem Bend-South East 275kV outage constraint set from 20 August still touches V-SA, NSW1-QLD1, T-V-MNSP1, V-S-MNSP1 and VIC1-NSW1 on its LHS. The NRM_VIC1_SA1 negative residue constraint from 19 August has been cancelled, so no residue management action is currently capping V-SA or Murraylink flows.
Overall, price convergence across NSW1, VIC1, SA1 and TAS1 (all within a $16/MWh band) reflects healthy interconnector utilisation without hard binding, while QLD1's discount is being actively arbitraged via QNI at high utilisation. Watch QNI first if NSW or QLD demand shifts — it has the least headroom of any link on the board today.