March was a relatively uneventful month in the energy market, but a busy month for the Stanwell Energy team, as we took to the road with our new Progressive Purchasing Portal.
Throughout the month, our Retail team visited our partners and consultants in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to demonstrate our brand new Progressive Purchasing Portal.
The Portal allows our customers to submit offers to purchase energy online at live market prices, at their own convenience, progressively throughout the life of their contract.
Our portal puts the power back in your hands, by allowing you to purchase energy when you choose. This will only enhance the experience for our valued customers, making the purchasing process more accessible, convenient and manageable.
If you missed out on one of these presentations, please reach out to us for a demonstration!
Now, let’s take a look at the state of the market in March.
Spot market
In the spot market, we saw prices fall across the board – closing at $74.09 in Queensland (down $45.64), $70.47 in New South Wales (down $41.20), and $51.99 in Victoria (down $30.95).
This was mainly due to high unit availability in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. At the same time, we had relatively mild weather in all three states. That helped to drive down demand, and prices fell accordingly.
Contract market
In the contract market, low liquidity and less volume trading overall in generic baseload swaps had led the curve to drift downwards in February.
That drop in price led to a bit of buying in March – enough for prices to go up slightly, finishing the month at $88.75 in Queensland (up 50 cents), $101.35 in New South Wales (up $2.35), and $64.20 in Victoria (up $3.40) – but not enough to really move the needle this month.
Looking ahead to Cal 26, prices are similarly flat. In Queensland, the Cal 26 price finished the month at $87.55, up $1.60.
In New South Wales, continued speculation on the lifespan of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station led to a slight drop in price – closing at $103.50, down $1.55.
In Victoria, where Cal 26 prices have been on the decline for months, we saw the back end crawl up to be more in line with the Cal 25 price – closing at $62.75, up $5.75.
This follows an incident in February that saw extreme winds topple six of the state’s high voltage transmission towers. That led to a sharp, sudden rise in the spot price, which seems to have spurred some interest in the forward market there.
Environmental market
In the environmental market, an increase in retail buying led to a small uptick in prices for Large-Scale Generation Certificates (LGCs), which closed the month at $46.25 (up 50 cents).
Small-Scale Technology Certificates (STCs) saw a similarly slight price increase, closing at $39.85 (up 20 cents).
Speculation around the supply of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) led the price of those units to rally throughout the month. But as those rumours cooled off, so did ACCU prices, ultimately closing at $33.25 (down $1.75).
And that’s it for March! We look forward to seeing you for another market update next month – and don’t forget to get in touch if you want a demonstration of our Progressive Purchasing Portal in the meantime!
