Page - 207 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

Snowy Hydro Limited operates and maintains the Snowy Mountains Scheme in Australia’s Southern Alps. Construction started on the scheme on 17 October 1949 and was completed in 1974. On completion, the scheme consisted of seven power stations, 16 major dams, 145 km of interconnected tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts. The company today has 16 power stations, which generate 4500 GWh on average per annum and also has more than 5500 MW of multi-fuel generation capacity across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia [12]. Hydro Tasmania is Australia’s largest generator of renewable energy and largest water manager. Since its inception in 1914, Hydro Tasmania has been a leader in clean energy innovation in Australia - building 54 major dams, 30 hydropower stations with an installed capacity of about 2200 MWh and two major wind farms. Hydro Tasmania produces about 9000 GWh of clean renewable electricity from hydropower every year [13]. 4.2. OPPORTUNITY TO OPERATE DIFFERENTLY The same drivers that are causing the market to explore pumped storage hydropower are also causing existing hydropower energy companies to consider using their existing hydro storage assets differently to meet the growing storage need and/or to modify their assets to meet this new opportunity. This has resulted in two major strategic projects: Snowy 2.0 and the Tasmanian “Battery of the Nation”. Both are discussed briefly below. 4.3. SNOWY 2.0 The proposed Snowy 2.0 Pumped Storage Project is currently the subject of a feasibility study. Linking two existing storages, Tantangara (upper) and Talbingo (lower) via 27 km of tunnels and with an installed capacity of 2000 MW, Snowy 2.0 would be one of the largest pumped storage projects in the world and would add about 35% to the installed capacity of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. One of the most significant aspects of the project is that the volume of the existing storages provides an energy storage capacity of about 350 GWh, or 175 hours of continuous operation at full output – something that is rare amongst pumped storage projects around the world. To put this into context, research by the Australian National University has found that the optimum pumped hydro energy storage contribution is 1525 GW of power capacity with 15-30 hours of energy storage to support a 100% renewable electricity system in Australia [14]. Snowy Hydro, the developers of the Snowy 2.0 project, state that the project will serve the market and consumers by providing dispatchable generation to address supply volatility, as well as fast-start capability and large-scale storage to address intermittency issues. An investment decision on Snowy 2.0 is expected by the end of 2018. Initial estimates suggest costs in the range of AUD $3.8 billion to AUD $4.5 billion. 207