deSide 3.1 includes significant improvements over deSide 2.x, to give you a better insight into the operations of the NEM, and to improve the reliability of your deSide service.

All the exciting stuff is on this page, but if you are interested in some improvements we've made to the reliability and performance of the deSide data feed then have a look at these Release Notes for the deSide Updater.

Display Upgrade

The main screen for each region has been enhanced to improve the presentation and to add more information. Changes include:

• 5 minute price data is displayed in both graphical and tabular form. You can now see both the recent history and AEMO forecasts, to better inform your energy management decisions.
• A new whole of NEM schematic shows prices, flows, and demand to give you an overview of what is happening across the whole of the NEM.
• Trading price forecasts now extend out as far as the AEMO published data.
• The cumulative price for the region is now displayed for those times when the NEM is approaching the price threshold.

Configurable Display Settings

We have added configurable features to the displays to help you better interpret the data on the screen.

• Price thresholds can now be configured to appear as fixed lines on graphs at the price points you choose. This allows you to easily see the price levels at which actions need to be taken.
• Static and Automatic graph scales can now be configured for each chart in the displays. Automatic scaling will set the scale of the Y axis to always display the maximum and minimum values. Static scaling will set the Y axis tio a fixed value that you provide.
• The heat map colour scheme that is used for the numeric values in the displays can now be configured to the range you want.

See the Help Page for instructions on how to configure your deSide display.

New 5 Minute Volatility Displays

We have developed a display to assist you in visualising how the AEMO five minute price forecasts have changed over time. This will enable you to form your own view on how well the current forecasts (looking forward) will match reality.

You can see here that the current dispatch time is 15:05. If you follow the central column down to the bottom, you can see that the current dispatch price is $50/MWh. You can also see that 55 minutes ago the AEMO predicted that the price for this five minute dispatch period was $27.78/MWh. This forecast changed a number of times over the past hour, between the low of $27.78/MWh and reaching as high as $500/MWh. The vertical columns show you the times that the predictions have been made for, and the horizontal rows display when the price predictions were made. The lowest diagonal row of cells (running top-to-bottom, left-to-right) displays the actual historical five minute prices, up to the current dispatch (these cells have a dark border in the display).

Improved Ticker

The improved Ticker display will provide you improved access to, and understanding of important information.

We have listened to your feedback on the ticker and have added a number of key features.

• Firstly, you can now run as many copies of the ticker as you desire which will allow you to see more than one region at once.
• Secondly, when you shrink the ticker down to a small size it will now automatically adjust itself so that the five minute prices and forecasts are readable, even when the ticker has been shrunk to very small sizes.
• Finally, the new version of the ticker will fail over to either of two redundant data sources we maintain on the internet (automatically) if your own deSide database is unavailable or out-of-date for any reason (e.g. if you are using your laptop out of the office).

Improved Data Access

We have developed a new Data Access Manager that is simpler to configure, and is even more reliable. The new Data Access Manager is:

• Easier to set up - this new Data Access Manager will make it easier for you to get deSide up and running in its various locations around your plant. When you set up your database in the deSide client you can now save your configuration and load it elsewhere, saving you both time and effort.
• Additional redundancy - deSide now supports fail-over to a datasource hosted by global-roam for cases where your central database is unavailable or out-of-date for any reason.

Smartphone Access to Price Information

The smartphone version of deSide provides you with easy-to-read price information for each of the NEM regions. This version of deSide provides you with a simple way to see price data while you are out of the office, and also provides you with an separate, independent data feed that does not rely on any of your IT infrastructure.

To use this mobile service, just point the browser on your smartphone (Blackberry, IPhone, or similar) to http://m.desideonline.com, and login with your GR-ID and password.

Improvements to the Performance and Reliability of the deSide Updater

We have made significant improvements to the reliability and performance of the deSide Updater and all the gory details are described in the Release Notes for the deSide Updater.