Live NEM Spot Prices by Region

What the spot price is

The number on each card is the regional reference price (RRP) for the latest 5-minute dispatch interval, in dollars per megawatt-hour. Every 5 minutes AEMO's dispatch engine matches generator offers against demand in each of the five regions of the National Electricity Market (NEM) and sets the price at the offer of the last megawatt needed. Since 5-minute settlement began on 1 October 2021, that dispatch price is also the price generators are paid and retailers pay for each interval.

A price of $64/MWh is 6.4 cents per kilowatt-hour at wholesale. A household bill is several times higher, because network charges, environmental schemes and retail costs sit on top of the wholesale price.

Why the regions have different prices

The NEM runs from Queensland to Tasmania and South Australia, and each region has its own price. Interconnectors move power between neighbouring regions. When they have room, prices across regions converge. When an interconnector reaches its limit, the regions separate and can move in opposite directions: South Australia can sit at the floor while New South Wales pays a positive price in the same interval.

Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not part of the NEM. Western Australia runs its own Wholesale Electricity Market, so it does not appear here.

The price cap and the price floor

Prices are bounded. The market price floor is -$1,000/MWh. The market price cap is set by the Australian Energy Market Commission and indexed every 1 July; it was above $20,000/MWh for 2025-26. If prices stay very high for long enough, a cumulative price threshold triggers an administered price cap until the market settles. Prices near the cap are rare and usually last a few intervals, but they drive a large share of a year's wholesale revenue, which is why batteries and fast-start gas plants are built to catch them.

Why prices go negative

A negative price means generators are paying to keep producing. It happens most often in the middle of sunny, mild days, when rooftop solar cuts demand on the grid and utility-scale solar and wind are producing strongly. Some generators would rather run at a loss for an interval than stop: wind and solar farms may still earn certificates or contract payments, and coal plants avoid the cost and wear of shutting down and restarting.

South Australia and Victoria see the most negative intervals. The count of negative-price hours this month, shown above, is a quick read on how much renewable output each region is absorbing. For a project, frequent negative prices raise the value of storage and the cost of curtailment, which is why they belong in any revenue model. Our guide to MLF and curtailment risk covers what that means for a new connection.

How to read the figures

• Times are in NEM time, which is Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10) all year. The NEM does not observe daylight saving, so in summer the figures run one hour behind clocks in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, and 30 minutes behind South Australia.
• Each time is the end of its interval. A price stamped 14:35 covers 14:30 to 14:35.
• Demand is the region's operational demand met by the grid, in megawatts. It excludes most rooftop solar, which shows up as lower demand rather than as generation.
• Net interchange is the region's net flow on its interconnectors. Positive means the region is exporting, negative means it is importing.
• "Not firm" marks a price AEMO has not yet confirmed. It is replaced when the firm price arrives.

For more on how the market fits together, read the National Electricity Market explained. For the frequency control markets that run alongside energy, see live FCAS prices, and for the terms used on this page, the NEM glossary.