Batteries failed on day One: A four day wind drought in South Australia wreaks havoc, high prices

https://anero.id/energy/2026/june/21

By Jo Nova

The high pressure cell that burned the electricity bill

Wind power suffered a crippling failure in South Australia. It was providing 2 Gigawatts, or 100% of the state’s power on Friday June 19th, but by Sunday, the High had arrived and wind generation had collapsed to 0%. Worse, it stayed near there for the next three days.

The big beautiful batteries failed on the first day and prices took off accordingly. Only half the batteries were still there in the first big price spike of the first day, but on Sunday night and Monday morning, when prices hit $20,000 per megawatt-hour, they had nothing left to offer.

Paul McArdle calculates that the four day wind drought in South Australia was the worst since at least 2019.  We might wonder if there were worse ones in the naughies or the 1990s, but back then no one gave a toss. There were no price spikes on windless days when the nation ran on coal power.

https://anero.id/energy/2026/june

Staff at RenewEconomy got excited on the first day of the wind drought, talking about how the batteries ran out by the early evening and the prices spiked after that. Apparently this meant that the state needed even more batteries, and urgently!  But after the wind drought went on for another three days, they didn’t say a thing. It turns out the state needs five or ten times as many batteries as it has, and bezillions of dollars.

Big batteries caught short as worst wind drought in two years sends prices through the roof

By Sophie Vorrath, RenewEconomy, Monday June 22, 2026

Australia’s main grid chalked up its worst one-day wind drought in more than two years over the weekend, causing a series of price spikes in South Australia and highlighting the urgent need for more battery storage in the state with the highest penetration of renewables.

“The volatility didn’t stop there. Elevated prices persisted overnight, and this morning delivered another period of $20,000 [per megawatt-hour] prices in SA.”

As OptiGrid explains it, many of the state’s batteries discharged heavily through Sunday afternoon and early evening and, as batteries across the state ran low on charge, several dispatch intervals cleared above $3,000/MWh, with prices peaking above $20,000/MWh.

“Around half managed to catch the first extreme price interval,” says OptiGrid, “but far fewer were able to discharge in the later spikes. A couple of batteries were even charging through dispatch intervals above $10,000/MWh.

“By [Monday] morning, many batteries still had limited energy available after the overnight price event. Despite another period of $20k prices, relatively little battery capacity was able to respond.”

Renewables fans still don’t understand the free market (by definition, almost).

“Obviously, no wind meant gas generators had a field day,” David Leitch writes in his own LinkedIn post on the pricing event. “I guess they needed it. There have been so many posts about the decline in gas generation.

Gas wouldn’t be having a field day if there were enough gas generators to compete with, would they?

The problem is any grid dominated by random generators is either going to have to have huge generation oversupply to cover the worst days of the year, or they’re going to have huge price spikes. If they have a huge oversupply and those generators can only earn money on a few days a year, they’re going to have to charge like a Space X IPO on the days they’re needed. There is no way out of this. Intermittent generators are never going to cheaper or better unless we decide blackouts are OK.

“Batteries in South Australia are paying $250/MWh to recharge and on this day ultimately did little to keep prices down.”

So on the first whole day of the wind drought the batteries were already flat, and had to pay $250/ MWh to recharge.

Even after the bonfire on Sunday Monday, things were not looking all that healthy on Wednesday and Thursday either. That’s a lot of red price spikes in the $300 – $500/MWh zone hour after hour.

AEMO Despatch June 25 https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem

Looking at the average daily prices in South Australia, the state was already in deep trouble on Saturday the 20th. Prices for the entire 24 hour period averaged $469/ MWh.  On Sunday they blistered in at $1,165 per megawatt all day long.

Paul McArdle at WattClarity looks closely at the bidding behaviour wonders if  the “goose was already cooked” by lunchtime Sunday.