Interconnector Watch: Wednesday 2 September 2026

VIC-NSW is the standout this morning: 758 MW flowing from Victoria into NSW, sitting right at its 758.11 MW export limit and binding. This is doing the heavy lifting on price convergence between the two regions — VIC sits at $10.50/MWh against NSW at $65.50/MWh, and without that near-maximal export from the low-price region, the NSW price spread against VIC would likely be wider still. Basslink (T-V-MNSP1) is also binding, exporting 349 MW from Tasmania into Victoria, constrained by an unplanned outage at the Tungatina 110 kV substation in TAS — AEMO invoked the T-PMWA constraint set on this line from 2140 hrs yesterday, and it's currently running close to its -364.86 MW to -160.93 MW operating band. TAS prices remain low at $10.98/MWh, consistent with continued export capability despite the tighter limit.

Heywood (V-SA) is flowing 221 MW from Victoria into South Australia, well within its wide import/export band and not binding, while Murraylink (V-S-MNSP1) carries just 11 MW in the same direction — both comfortably inside limits despite an automated constraint set (CA_SYDS_59A889E5) invoked since 1 September to manage VIC power system security. Neither is a binding constraint today. SA prices sit at $9.83/MWh, near parity with VIC and TAS, reflecting that Victoria is currently a net exporter to three neighbouring regions simultaneously — NSW, SA, and absorbing from Tasmania — while remaining low-priced itself, pointing to substantial surplus generation, likely wind and solar, sitting behind these flows.

QNI (NSW1-QLD1) is flowing 153 MW from QLD into NSW, comfortably within its wide limits and not binding, consistent with the narrow price gap between the two regions ($65.50/MWh NSW vs $64.95/MWh QLD). Directlink (N-Q-MNSP1) is sitting idle at 0 MW flow. With QNI unconstrained, the NSW-QLD price alignment reflects genuinely similar supply-demand balance in both regions rather than any interconnector limitation. WA1, not connected to the NEM, is separately priced at $111.34/MWh, underscoring the isolation of that market from mainland grid dynamics. Overall, today's binding constraints are concentrated on the VIC-NSW and TAS-VIC boundaries, with the Basslink limitation particularly worth monitoring given the unplanned Tungatina outage remains unresolved.