NEM mid-July update

Here’s a high-level snapshot of the National Electricity Market for July 1–17, 2025:

• Spot Prices
  Wholesale spot prices have remained elevated into mid-winter. June 2025 saw an average NEM spot price of $232/MWh (up 139% on May’s $96/MWh) (Leading Edge Energy). By July 11, instantaneous trading prices in the 08:30–09:00 interval were around $183.11/MWh (nems.emcsg.com).
• Major Generation Outages
  Planned and unplanned outages have tightened supply: Yallourn Unit 3 was offline Jul 5–12 for a scheduled overhaul (560 MW), and Eraring Unit 5 tripped unexpectedly Jul 10–14 (~720 MW) (nemoutages.azurewebsites.net, aemo.com.au).
• Wind & Solar Output
  Solar and wind continue to contribute strongly. AEMO forecasts overall solar curtailment under 1% but notes some large plants face >25% cuts due to network constraints (PV Magazine Australia); real-time data show combined wind+solar often exceeding 3.5 GW during daylight peaks (aemo.com.au).
• Renewables Share
  In Q1 2025, renewables supplied a record 43% of NEM energy (ecogeneration.com.au); mid-July month-to-date renewable penetration remains above 40%, driven by wind, solar and hydro (aemo.com.au).
• Hydro News
  Snowy Hydro’s Snowy 2.0 pumped-storage project has completed key factory acceptance testing, keeping its 2.2 GW/350 GWh in-system by 2028 on track (Snowy Hydro, Snowy Hydro).
• Battery News
  Fluence was selected for the 300 MW/600 MWh Wellington BESS, due to start construction Q4 2025 (Yahoo Finance). Envision Energy and FERA Australia also inked a deal to build up to 1.5 GWh of storage alongside 1 GW of wind generation (Taiwan News).
• Major Price Spikes & Negative Events
  A cold snap on June 11 drove spot prices above $7,000/MWh in all five regions during evening peaks (WattClarity). Conversely, high solar export/low overnight demand has triggered multiple negative-price dispatch intervals, with the market floor at -$1,000/MWh observed in early July (utilizer.com.au, aer.gov.au).