VIC Electricity Spot Price Today

How Victoria's price behaves

Victoria combines brown coal stations in the Latrobe Valley with one of the largest wind fleets in the NEM, concentrated in the west of the state, plus utility-scale and rooftop solar. Brown coal plants are slow and costly to cycle, so on windy, sunny days with mild demand they often keep running at a loss rather than shut down. That is a large part of why Victoria records so many negative-price intervals, overnight on windy nights as well as at midday.

Victoria's demand peaks are sharpest in summer heatwaves, when prices can spike, and its winter evenings are busier than Queensland's because of electric heating.

Interconnectors

Victoria is a hub. It links to New South Wales through the Victoria–New South Wales Interconnector, to South Australia through the Heywood and Murraylink interconnectors, and to Tasmania through Basslink, an undersea HVDC cable. When wind is strong, Victoria exports in several directions at once; when its coal units are offline, it leans on its neighbours.

Renewable energy zones

VicGrid is planning Victoria's renewable energy zones and the transmission they need, including Gippsland, where offshore wind is planned. As more generation connects in western Victoria, congestion and falling marginal loss factors have become real costs for projects there. Read MLF and curtailment risk for what that means for a new connection.