Australian Grid Mix Screensaver
The Australian Grid Mix screensaver shows what is generating electricity on Australia's National Electricity Market right now, by fuel, gathered key-less by the pipeline. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Australian Grid Mix screensaver works
The saver reads the source described above and draws it on a canvas — no account, no tracking.
What is generating electricity on Australia's National Electricity Market right now, by fuel, gathered key-less by the pipeline. Rooftop solar counts as generation in its own right here, which is why on a sunny afternoon it outranks every coal station on the grid.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours and any options can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
Inside Australia's National Electricity Market
The National Electricity Market, or NEM, links the grids of Queensland, New South Wales (with the Australian Capital Territory), Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania into one interconnected system, with a separate price for each of five regions. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not among those regions, so this is not a national total. The NEM dispatches generation every five minutes.
The figures come from OpenElectricity, the open platform formerly known as OpenNEM. It republishes public data from the NEM and from Western Australia’s Wholesale Electricity Market to make it easier for a wider audience to follow, and it is run by The Superpower Institute with public APIs for developers. Small-scale rooftop solar is spread across huge numbers of homes rather than sitting at one power station, which is why it is treated as its own source of generation.
The mix changes through the day, with solar rising to a midday peak and falling away in the evening, when other sources have to cover the gap. Seasons and weather change the picture a great deal, so the board is a snapshot of the instant shown.
A worked example
What is generating electricity on Australia's National Electricity Market right now, by fuel, gathered key-less by the pipeline. Rooftop solar counts as generation in its own right here, which is why on a sunny afternoon it outranks every coal station on the grid.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Every number on screen comes from the live source — nothing is simulated.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the source named on this page and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Why is rooftop solar counted as generation?
- Because it supplies real energy that meets demand on the grid, even though it comes from many small systems on homes and businesses rather than from one station.
- Does this cover the whole of Australia?
- No. It covers the NEM, which serves the eastern and south-eastern states and Tasmania, not Western Australia or the Northern Territory.