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🇦🇺 Australia /Energy & Infrastructure

Fire at Tasmania Hydro Station Raises Questions Over Power Network

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Explainer Named sources Ongoing story
  • A fire destroyed much of Tasmania’s 142.5-megawatt Tungatinah hydro station, which supplied about 5% of the state’s energy.
  • Hydro Tasmania and TasNetworks said the power system remains secure, while about 300 local customers experienced supply impacts and major industrial users were unaffected.
  • Low demand, high dam levels, the Basslink cable and a 342-megawatt gas generator at Tamar Valley provide alternatives while the station is offline.

The Tungatinah Power Station in Tasmania’s Central Highlands was left as a shell after an overnight fire, prompting questions about the effect on the state’s electricity network. Emergency services received the call at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday and spent several hours bringing the blaze under control.

The hydro station contributes about 5% of Tasmania’s energy and has a capacity of 142.5 megawatts, making it the state’s fifth-largest hydro facility. Despite its loss, Hydro Tasmania and network operator TasNetworks said the power system remained secure. Around 300 customers in the area experienced impacts, but no major industrial customers were affected.

The transmission network was designed to withstand an incident like this.

· Renee AndersonThe TasNetworks acting chief executive said the network could manage the station’s outage.

Current demand is lower following the closure of the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter and reduced production at the Nyrstar zinc smelter. Tasmania can also import up to 250 megawatts through the Basslink cable. Hydro Tasmania is reviewing contingency plans that include the Tamar Valley Power Station’s 342-megawatt gas generator, which is expected to return to service by the end of the week.

Even before it gets back, we're very confident that we've got sufficient generation capacity running and ready in the state.

· Rachel WatsonThe Hydro Tasmania chief executive described the available supply while the Tamar Valley generator was offline.

Hydro Tasmania chief executive Rachel Watson said the state had sufficient generation capacity even before the generator returned. It had already operated at times during winter. OpenNEM data showed Tungatinah supplied about 7.5% of Tasmania’s energy in July and August.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff told parliament that the state’s dams were at their highest levels in 10 years. Goanna Energy analyst Marc White put storage at about 50%, or 15% above the prudent level for this time of year. He said the timing was favorable because demand was low, wind resources were strong, dam levels were high, and both Basslink and gas-fired generation were available.

We probably couldn't have asked for a better time for this sort of catastrophic event to happen.

· Marc WhiteThe Goanna Energy analyst cited low demand, strong wind resources, high dam levels and backup options.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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