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To trial the new version, please follow these steps.

You might like to see how all these stations, and more, are displayed in the 2011 Issue of the “Power Trading Schematic” Market Map.

This week we have released another upgrade to the product.

1 – What’s new and improved in v6.3?

Based on client requests, we’ve delivered a number of enhancements to NEM-Review, including the following:

1a)  Metered Demand

To date, NEM-Review has only re-distributed one measure of demand published by NEMMCO/AEMO.  This was the “Target Demand” as defined in this table.

Some time after the market started, NEMMCO/AEMO started also publishing “Metered Demand” (also defined in this table).  With this upgrade, we have:
i.  Added Metered Demand into NEM-Review.
ii.  We have also clarified the naming of the Target Demand data set to ensure that it is clear which one you are using.
You can now access both from the “Regions” tab

Metered Demand is now available back to 9th July 2004 (which is when NEMMCO started publishing it – but not through MarketNet).

Example uses of Metered Demand In this recent post on WattClarity ®, we take a look at the difference between Metered Demand and Target Demand, in the context of understanding how growth in average demand seems to be slowing in more recent years.

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1b) Metered Generation

Similarly, NEM-Review has (since its first release) provided updates of “Target Generation (as Generated)” as defined in this table.

Because this data is an output from NEMDE, it has only ever been available for those generators that receive dispatch instructions from AEMO (i.e. Scheduled Generators – and Semi-Scheduled, more recently).

In more recent times, NEMMCO/AEMO has also started also publishing instantaneous values for metered generation on 5-minute intervals including for some (but not all) Non-Scheduled generators (wind farms constructed earlier, sugar mills, smaller hydro, etc…)

About the Scheduled, Semi-Scheduled and Non-Scheduled classes You can see how each individual DUID has been registered with AEMO in the Generator Catalogue within NEM-Review. Use the “Group By” option when selecting Generators in the data series to group by “NEMMCO Class” as one way of selecting generators only in the classification of interest. You also might appreciate a copy of our “Power Trading Schematic” Market Map, as this provides a graphical view of the classifications of currently operating generators across the NEM.

From this data, we have now derived “Metered Generation (as Generated)”, also defined in this table, to include in the NEM-Review database.

With this upgrade, we have:
i. Added Metered Generation into NEM-Review.
ii. We have also clarified the naming of the Target Generation data set to ensure that it is clear which one you are using.

Metered Generation is available back to the start of the NEM, or from when newer stations commenced operating.

New stations added into NEM-Review in this upgrade We’ve made this subsequent post to provide some details about the stations that can be newly analysed in NEM-Review as a result of the addition of the “Metered Generation” data set.

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1c) New Reports

One of the major enhancements we made in the upgrade to v6 was the ability for clients to save one or more queries in a tabbed NRF file, a little like your favourite spreadsheet app.

With the upgrade to v6.3, we have made this even more powerful by including the ability for you now to design a report for a sliding period.

For instance, you might want to configure yourself a standard report of weekly NEM statistics, which might have multiple tabs – each with their own piece of analysis.  Then double-click to run each Monday, whilst grabbing your coffee, to review what happened last week.

Example uses of the new reporting ability When we have time, we’ll add in some examples of how you might use this feature on WattClarity® and link them here…

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1d)  Easier to Trial

With the upgrade to v6.3 we have made it easier for you to trial the software.

The standard trial installation will access a sample set of recent data from the NEM-Review web database via standard HTTP ports (rather than requiring you to open a dedicated SQL network port – which was troublesome for some clients).

Trial the new NEM-Review today! You can be up and running in only 5 minutes – just install the software by following the steps outlined here…

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1e) Web Database works better, in your Annual licence

We’ve configured NEM-Review such that it can work wherever you are – in the office, on the road, and even at 30,000ft (see here for configuration)

With the upgrade to v6.3, the change to the Web Database access arrangements (i.e. working through standard HTTP ports) will also make it easier for you to access, whist you are on the road.

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1f)  Changed Owners, Bidders and Traders

With the privatisations in NSW, the restructure of Alinta and the Genco reshuffle in QLD (amongst other developments) we’re also working through the process of updating the Bidders, Owners and Traders used to classify power stations in NEM-Review.  These are explained here.

We’re doing this in conjunction with our development of the 2011 Issue of the “Power Supply Schematic” Market Map, which is still on the go at present.

When we have completed this work, it will be automatically propagated through to client’s NEM-Review database through the update mechanism.

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2 – How do I access the upgrade?

There are three components involved in the NEM-Review service – the Updater, the Database and the Client.  This is shown here.

You will only need to install an upgrade for the Client.

2a) NEM-Review Update Server

To make all of these changes, we have not needed to upgrade the updater.

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2b) NEM-Review Database

All the new data, and the new data structures, have been automatically delivered through to your database already through your copy of the NEM-Review Updater.

If you have any questions about this, please give us a call on +61 (0)7 3368 4064

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2a) NEM-Review Analysis Client

To access the new data, and functionality, you will have to reinstall this one.  Your old copy will continue running normally in the meantime.

To do this, please follow the steps (for the Analysis Client only) that are included here.

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3 – What’s on the agenda for future upgrades?

We’ve already started planning what’s next – stay tuned here for more information, as the development unfold.

If you have specific suggestions you can provide to us, please do so  via:
1)  Call us on +61 (0)7 3368 4064
2)  Send them in on this feedback form.

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All of our current NEM-Review clients were upgraded to v6 at no charge, as part of their annual licence to the software.

As such, our clients are now enjoying the numerous enhancements in NEM-Review v6.

In every-day use of the software here at global-roam and at other companies, several issues have been uncovered. We’ve fixed the most obtrusive of these and released them now in v6.2.1.

What’s new in v6.2.1?

• Added the ability to use a local database for trials (no need to open port 1433 to use the Web Database)
• Added the regional intermittent generation data set back in to the Bronze model
• Added the ability to right click and copy a graph as an image
• Added the ability to right click and copy selected data from a table
• Fixed the date selector so the “to” and “from” dates do not change unexpectedly
• Fixed data series names so that column headings in csv files display correctly
• Fixed the ability to query specific times within a day
• Fixed date issues occurring for non-Australian timezones
• Fixed regional utilisation queries so NEM-Review does not abort when selecting null data
• Fixed various other minor bugs

How to Upgrade to v6.2.1?

It’s free to upgrade to v6.2.1 as part of your current NEM-Review licence, and should take 5-15 minutes, depending on your current version of NEM-Review.

Click the link below for your current version of NEM-Review for instructions on how to upgrade to NEM-Review v6.2.1. If you’re unsure of your version, open NEM-Review and look in the title bar in the top left corner.

Upgrade from v6.2.0

Upgrade from v6.1.x

Upgrade from v5

Here is an overview of all the new info we’ve added under these sections – we hope you find it useful.

What is NEM-Review?

We’ve added many new pages to the ‘What is NEM-Review?‘ section to show how you can use NEM-Review’s analytical capabilities to benefit your business.

Show me what NEM-Review is
An illustrated overview of NEM-Review highlighting the main features of the software, and showing how it fits into your organisation.

People like me who enjoy NEM-Review
Case studies on how a broad range of different participant types in the NEM use and benefit from the software. 

The details about NEM-Review
A complete and thorough explanation of all the tools and capabilities of the software, including the data, how data is updated, and the options available for analysing this data – with the end result provided in CSV, graphs or tables.

How to Use NEM-Review?

We’ve also spent some time fleshing out the information on how to use NEM-Review. In particular, we’ve added a number of detailed step-by-step guides to the section on ‘getting the most from your licence‘ and plenty of additional information to ensure you understand the data and tools available.

• How to create graphs and query data in NEM-Review
• How to use the generator catalogue
• How to analyse the profit margin on coal burnt at a station with NEM-Review and Excel
• Detailed explanations of the data sets available in NEM-Review
• How to configure your database so you can use NEM-Review in the office, on the road, or anywhere else
• Troubleshooting guides for common problems
• And more…

NEM-Review News

We will continue to add new information about NEM-Review to the portal in the future. When we do so we’ll update this news section of the site to let you know – sign up to recieve updates via email or RSS.

Over the next 3 weeks we’ll be adding loads of new content explaining what NEM-Review is, and how you can use it to make your analysis of the NEM easier and more efficient. Watch the RSS feed for updates.

This week we’ve focused on three areas of the site:

1. How to Use NEM-Review (for current users)
2. The Details about the NEM-Review Software (for those thinking about trying or buying)
3. A brand new homepage (for everyone)

1. How to Use NEM-Review

The “How to use NEM-Review?” section of the portal (the middle tab up the top of the page) is designed to help NEM-Review users get the software set up, and then get as much value as possible out of it.

We’ve made several changes here:

1. We’ve revamped the main page of this section to make it easier for you to get to the most important information. See the new How to Use NEM-Review page here.
2. In the “Getting the Most from your Licence” section (all about using NEM-Review to get data and perform analysis) we’ve restructured everything in a more logical way. See the Getting the Most from your Licence main page.
3. We’ve also added a couple of new pages under this section:
   1. List of Known Gaps in the Data Supplied by NEM-Review – A small number of gaps were found in the original AEMO data during our data cleansing process, which we’ve recorded here for your reference.
   2. How to Save and Share NEM-Review Files
   3. How to Export Graphs and Data
   4. How to use the Generator Catalogue

We’ll continue to add more content to this section over the next few weeks.

2. The Details about the NEM-Review Software

The “Details” section of the portal (under the “What is NEM-Review?” tab) provides detailed information to those considering whether to try or buy NEM-Review, to help them make an informed decision.

We’ve completely redesigned this section, and added over 50 pages of information explaining:

• The raw AEMO data available in NEM-Review
• Data updates
• The analysis framework (e.g. saving files)
• The different modes of analysis
• Options for selecting data
• Chart configuration
• Manipulation of tables and charts (after data has been selected)
• Regular email reports

Read all the details here.

3. Brand New Homepage

Based on comments from the guys in our office, we designed a new home page to make the structure of the portal easier to understand. It explains the three main tabs (“What is NEM-Review?”, “How to use NEM-Review?” and “News), what NEM-Review is, and has an animated overview of the software.

Clicking the blue NEM-Review 6 icon in the top left of the screen will take you back to the home page.

4. What would you like to see on the portal?

If there’s something you want to know about NEM-Review, and you think it should be included on the portal so others can see it too, please let us know.

Over the 10 years since NEM-Review was first introduced, the NEM has developed significantly – and the needs of our clients with respect to the NEM has developed significantly as well.  Hence, with v6, we have invested many person-weeks of time in a “Data Cleansing” process designed to ensure that NEM-Review 6 is keeping pace with the times.

This Data Cleansing process has been designed to deliver added value in four ways:

1. We have updated a number of factors associated at a Station or Unit level
2. We have filled a small number of gaps in the data that had inadvertently slipped through the update process
3. We have, in a small number of cases, corrected data
4. We have implemented a framework for testing coded calculations.

In this post we will explain each in turn:

1)  Updating Generator Factors and Information

New to v6, we’ve added in a series of derived data sets – such as unit revenue, CO2 emissions, and coal burn.  These derived data sets are able to be trended and analysed in the same way that the raw AEMO data can be analysed.

To facilitate this, we’ve utilized a series of estimated factors that are contained in the NEM-Review database.  You can view these factors in the Generator Catalogue (another new addition to v6).

These factors were present in v5, but not used within the core application.  Given that they will be much more heavily used in v6, we’ve invested time in updating these factors with the following objectives in mind:

(a)    Wherever possible, utilize sources for these factors in the public domain.
(b)    Wherever possible, utilize a single source for these factors, to deliver comparability of the results obtained from one unit to another.

As such, we’ve standardized on the following references for many of the factors included in the database:

ACIL Tasman.  April 2009.  “Fuel resource, new entry and generation costs in the NEM”
located at http://www.aemo.com.au/planning/419-0035.pdf

and

AEMO.  14 May 2010.  “Registration and exemption listing”
located at http://www.aemo.com.au/registration/registration.html

The following tables provide an indication of what factors are included in the NEM-Review 6 database, why they are included, and how we have reviewed the data as part of the cleansing process:

(a)  Factors At a Unit Level

Some of the factors are stored in the NEM-Review database at a unit level, meaning that they are able to be varied across units in a given station:

(b)  Factors At a Station Level

Some of the factors are stored in the NEM-Review database at a station level, meaning that they are uniform for all units within a station:

2)  Filling gaps in the database

Calculations in NEM-Review are performed with respect to the raw data set that represents 17,520 time points per year, over more than 11 years, for each raw data set published by AEMO and updated through to NEM-Review.

On a small number of occasions in the past, the data update process used by previous versions of NEM-Review has missed individual data points.  As a result we have:

(a)  Corrected the data update process, to reduce the risk of this happening in future;
(b)  Filled in gaps in the data from the source CSV files obtained from AEMO; and
(c)  Developed a testing tool that we will continue to use in future to ensure that no further gaps are introduced in future.

This data cleansing was done with respect to the following data sets:

(a)    Regional pool price

(b)    Regional cumulative price

(c)  Regional available generation

(d) Regional demand

(e)  Regional intermittent generation

(f)  Interconnector flow and loss

(g)  Interconnector import and export limit

(h)  Generator unit available generation

(i)  Generator unit output

(j)  FCAS data

As a result of our efforts, we are confident that the database supplied with NEM-Review 6 is complete with respect to all of the data supplied – with the exception of these known data gaps in NEM-Review, which still exist in NEM-Review 6 because of gaps in the original source files supplied to us by AEMO.  We are following this up and will feed through the missing data when it becomes available to us.

3)  Correcting data errors

With v5, the processing of price revisions was a manual process.  As such, there were a couple of instances where price revisions were missing.

As a result we have:

(a)  Corrected the data update process, to reduce the risk of this happening in future;
(b)  Reprocessed the data from the source CSV files obtained from AEMO; and
(c)  Performed a benchmarking of the price data in NEM-Review 6 against the average daily prices published in the AEMO Average Price Tables to ensure that they were all identical (within a tolerance allowed for rounding).

4)  Testing Data Selection and Calculation

To check that calculations had not been broken in the development of v6, we ran 50 queries in both NEM-Review v5 and v6 (on the same set of data), and compared the results.

For queries where the output from v5 and v6 differed, the results were analysed to determine the cause of the differences.

(a)  In some cases the cause was a known issue in v5 that had been fixed in v6.

(b)  In cases where the differences were due to calculation errors in v6, these were corrected by our development team.

This test has been an effective test, as the v5 and v6 code bases are entirely different, and coded using a different architecture and language.

This set of tests covered several of the more commonly used types queries in NEM-Review:

• Regional pool prices and demand
• Interconnector flow and loss
• Generator output and available generation
• Intermittent generation
• Trading data, time of day, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal, yearly (calendar and financial) calculated data
• Mean, max, min and total calculations
• A variety of date ranges, both long (start of the NEM until now) and short
• Limited by days of the week or times during the day

* * *

5)  For more information

If you’d like to know more detail about our testing procedures or think we’ve missed something, please leave us a comment below or contact us directly.

If you currently have any NEM-Review v6.1.x installed, follow these instructions to upgrade to the new NEM-Review v6.2.

All copies of NEM-Review v6.1.x must be deactivated and uninstalled from all computers on your network before installing the NEM-Review v6.2.0.

1.     Deactivate NEM-Review v6.1.x

1. Open the NEM-Review Analysis Client 
2. Go to Tools > Options. Select the Licence tab and click Deactivate. The NEM-Review Analysis Client will close automatically
3. Open the NEM-Review Updater
4. Go to Options > Licence > Deactivate. The NEM-Review Updater will close automatically

2.     Uninstall NEM-Review v6.1.x

1. Open Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
2. Find NEM-Review Client v6.1.x and click Remove
3. Find NEM-Review Updater v6.1.x and click Remove

Warning! The next step involves deleting files from your computer. Deleting the wrong files could have disastrous results.

Do not delete any files other than those stated in the instructions. If in doubt, ask your IT administrator for help or contact us.

4. Delete the NEM-Review v6.1.x program directory and all files inside it. The default location for this is:
   C:\Program Files\global-roam\NEM-Review v6\
5. If you wish, you can delete any remaining NEM-Review V6.1.x databases on your network. These are no longer needed and removing them may avoid confusion.The new v6.2.0 database has undergone significant data cleansing, and is more comprehensive than previous versions.

3.     Download the v6.2 Installer

The NEM-Review 6 installer is split into two parts – the Analysis Client and the Updater. Only the Analysis Client is needed to get started, but the Updater will create a local database which can be accessed by multiple Analysis Clients, and makes queries faster.

Download the Analysis Client installer here

Download the Update Server installer here

4.     Install the Updater

If you want a local database maintained on your network, that all Analysis Clients can connect to for quick data retrieval, you will need to install an Updater.

We recommend installing the Updater on a computer that is always on so it can automatically download data into your NEM-Review database.

Follow these instructions to install the Updater.

5.     Configure the Updater

The first time the Updater is run you will need to activate a licence, set up a database and configure any proxy settings.

When activating a licence for the Updater, you must select a licence that is not labeled with “beta” (beta licences will be removed when v6.1.x is turned off on 31^st August).

NEM-Review v6.2 is not compatible with v6.1.x databases. As this is the first time you’ve installed v6, you will need to download a new database when prompted by the Updater.

Follow these instructions to configure the Updater.

6.     Install the Analysis Client

You need to install one Analysis Client on the PC of each user that wishes to analyse the NEM-Review data.

Follow these instructions to install the Analysis Client.

7.     Configure the Analysis Client

When you first run the Analysis Client you will need to activate a licence, connect to database, and configure any proxy settings.

When activating a licence for the Analysis Client, you must select a licence that is not labeled with “beta” (beta licences will be removed when v6.1.x is turned off on 31^st August).

Follow these instructions to configure the Analysis Client.

If you currently have NEM-Review v5 installed, follow these instructions to upgrade to the new NEM-Review v6.2.

1.     Uninstall NEM-Review v5

All copies of NEM-Review v5 should be uninstalled from all computers on your network.

1. Open Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
2. Find NEM-Review V5 and click Remove
3. If you wish, you can delete any remaining NEM-Review V5 databases on your network. V5 databases cannot be used with NEM-Review v6, and removing them may avoid confusion.The v6 database has undergone significant data cleansing, and is more comprehensive than previous versions.

2.     Download the v6.2 Installer

The NEM-Review 6 installer is split into two parts – the Analysis Client and the Updater. Only the Analysis Client is needed to get started, but the Updater will create a local database which can be accessed by multiple Analysis Clients and make queries faster.

Download the Analysis Client installer here

Download the Update Server installer here

3.     Install the Updater

If you want a local database maintained on your network, that all Analysis Clients can connect to for quick data retrieval, you will need to install an Updater.

We recommend installing the Updater on a computer that is always on so it can automatically download data into your NEM-Review database.

Follow these instructions to install the Updater.

4.     Configure the Updater

The first time the Updater is run you will need to activate a licence, set up a database and configure any proxy settings.

NEM-Review v6 is not compatible with v5 databases. As this is the first time you’ve installed v6, you will need to download a new database when prompted by the Updater.

Follow these instructions to configure the Updater.

5.     Install the Analysis Client

You need to install one Analysis Client on the PC of each user that wishes to analyse the NEM-Review data.

Follow these instructions to install the Analysis Client.

6.     Configure the Analysis Client

When you first run the Analysis Client you will need to activate a licence, connect to database, and configure any proxy settings.

Follow these instructions to configure the Analysis Client.