Tag: Snowy Hydro

News

SA Solar Investment

01/02/2017

Snowy Hydro Limited will invest in a battery ready 100 megawatt solar facility in Tailem Bend in South Australia to boost its generation capacity and grow its electricity retail business – Lumo Energy.

By entering into a long-term agreement with experienced renewable energy investor and developer Equis, Snowy Hydro will be able to access 100 megawatts of renewable solar generation on completion of the solar farm in 2018, with the ability to install up to 100 megawatts of large-scale battery storage on the Tailem Bend site.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Snowy Hydro to source renewable generation in South Australia to complement our existing capacity,” Snowy Hydro CEO and Managing Director Paul Broad said.

“The solar farm represents a significant, strategic investment in South Australia by Snowy Hydro and demonstrates our commitment to growing both our generation business and our Lumo Energy business, which services around 50,000 electricity customers in the State.

“We are pleased to be working with Equis to deliver more renewable energy to South Australia, backed by reliable fast-start thermal capacity. Importantly, this unique generation facility at Tailem Bend is also ‘battery ready’ with the ability to install up to 100 megawatts of large-scale battery storage on the site.”

David Russell, CEO of Equis, said: “As Asia’s largest renewable energy developer and investor, the Tailem Bend solar project represents an exciting expansion into Australia for Equis and an unique opportunity to leverage our development and construction expertise to deliver large scale, reliable renewable energy for Australian consumers.

“We are delighted to partner Snowy Hydro on the Tailem Bend solar project to build one of Australia’s lowest cost solar generation projects with a unique “battery-storage ready” design, further enhancing the project’s long term attractiveness as a stable, low cost source of power.”

Snowy Hydro currently owns and operates 5500 megawatts of generation capacity across Australia, including the iconic 4100 megawatt Snowy Hydro-electric Scheme in the Snowy Mountains region of NSW.

The Tailem Bend project will mean Snowy Hydro has access to 264 megawatts of generation capacity in South Australia. The company already operates 136 megawatts of thermal capacity at Port Stanvac and Angaston and will add a further 28 megawatts of diesel generation at the Tailem Bend site from 2017.

“We combine the power of the mighty Snowy Scheme with gas and diesel fired peaking generators to deliver a flexible and reliable mix of energy to our growing customer base every day,” Mr Broad said.

“We have been keeping the lights on in NSW and Victoria since construction days in the 1950s and are one of the most experienced and diverse companies operating in the National Electricity Market.

“Through our award winning retail companies – Red Energy and Lumo Energy – Snowy Hydro services more than one million gas and electricity customer accounts. We pride ourselves on superior customer service and look forward to growing our Lumo Energy retail customer base in South Australia.”

News

Keeping the lights on

22/12/2016

CEO, Paul Broad, weighs in on the recent blackouts in South Australia and the implications for the National Electricity Market…

Australia has been blessed with relatively cheap energy and we have grown as a nation as a result of it. A key part of that growth has been having enormous renewable resources such as Snowy and Hydro Tasmania, which have played an integral part in keeping the lights on with our reliable, fast-start responsiveness to the market. Equally so, in Snowy’s case, we provide more than 32 per cent of all renewable energy that is produced in this country. This clean, efficient and renewable energy continues to help light up homes and businesses in the Eastern states including South Australia and Tasmania.

The Snowy Scheme was visionary in its day and is an important part of our nation’s history. It was an amazing engineering success to make true the vision to collect and move water east to west and into the growing food bowl of Australia and to pay for it through electricity generation. This is still the vision we have today, but we have evolved over the years through innovation and diversification, and have gone beyond what our founding fathers had envisaged.

The modern Snowy Hydro operates a complex, integrated end to end energy business, which we are immensely proud of.

We continue to be the proud custodians of water that is collectively owned by the people of NSW and Victoria, and manage it under a strict Water Licence regime. Water in the Scheme plays a critical role as it not only underwrites the production of agricultural products worth around $3 billion each year, but through the Water Licence it also assists with counteracting the effects of severe droughts and improving productivity in the Murray Darling Basin. We are the leading provider of peak, renewable energy in the country. We also provide price risk management products for wholesale customers in the NEM and through Red Energy and Lumo, we deliver electricity and gas to homes and businesses. Finally, our ability to utilise the Scheme’s large, reliable, flexible and fast-start capability to our advantage also means that we play a critical role in keeping the lights on and are best placed to provide black start capability. It is disappointing that some regulators do not see it that way, given we are not currently part of AEMO’s contracted black-start arrangements, despite previously providing the service for many years and dedicating resources to respond quickly and safely.

On the recent statewide blackout in South Australia, I cannot help but reflect that if South Australia was fully interconnected with NSW, then the lights would have never gone out. The NEM has delivered very robust and efficient outcomes and, if left to its own devices, can deliver affordable energy to consumers drawing on the most efficient and effective means of generation to meet demand. But regulatory intervention and second best policy choices can often create problems, as they are now, by creating distortions in the market for which end-users ultimately pay the price. This is not the time to be picking winners or imposing solutions, but rather a time to trust the market to do what it does best. A more sensible approach could ensure we maintain a secure, reliable, affordable energy system while at the same time reducing emissions through a market based mechanism.

At Snowy we recognised that the uncertainty put into the NEM by knee-jerk reactions will be a challenge for the future and that Snowy will play integral role in filling in the gaps when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, particularly in NSW. In the wake of South Australia, we are urging governments and regulators to ensure that there are proven, reliable ‘black-start’ arrangements in place across the country to both keep the lights on and to ensure they are turned back on quickly in the event that things go wrong.

Snowy has always played a critical role in keeping the lights on, from our earliest days. Our contribution to the nation since construction began in 1949 was formally recognised in October when the Commonwealth Government added the Snowy Scheme to the National Heritage List. The addition to the National Heritage List is recognition of our important place in Australia’s history and the contribution we have made to the social and economic fabric of the country. It’s an important nod to our past and helps new generations to appreciate the sacrifice and skill of the many thousands of Australians and new arrivals who helped build the Snowy Scheme. Importantly, the listing does not impact on our important operations nor on our ability to operate, modernise and upgrade the Scheme for the benefit of future generations.

As 2016 draws to a close, at Snowy Hydro we have had another successful year across both our retail and generation businesses. This time last year we were reflecting on the contribution made by the expansion of our retail energy business (with the acquisition of Lumo and Direct Connect) and the addition of the gas fired power station at Colongra to our generation portfolio. Those acquisitions (in late 2014 and early 2015) have paid off through their contribution to our financial performance and management of our exposure to transmission risk, should our Snowy Scheme assets become constrained if lines went down into Sydney or Victoria. 2016 has also been about consolidation and growth. For the first time in the company’s history we made more than $2 billion in revenue, we recorded more than $500 million pre-tax profit and hit the significant milestone of more than one million retail customers.

Finally, as always, I would like to thank you for your support for Snowy Hydro this year. We look forward to sharing more news about our business in 2017. On behalf of everyone who works for Snowy Hydro, I wish you a safe, prosperous and happy festive season.

News

National Heritage Listing for the Snowy Scheme

14/10/2016

The Snowy Mountains Scheme has today been honoured with inclusion on the National Heritage List. As the biggest industrial development Australia has ever attempted, the Snowy Mountains Scheme changed the face of Australia.

Constructed between 1949 and 1974, the Snowy Mountains Scheme is the largest public works engineering scheme ever undertaken in Australia. Made up of 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts, sixteen major dams, nine power stations and a pumping station, the entire Scheme covers a mountainous area of 5124 square kilometres in southern New South Wales. Only two per cent of the entire construction is visible above the ground.

The Scheme’s dams, tunnels, aqueducts and power stations, including some buried deep underground, are some of the most complex and technical engineering and construction feats in the country and the world. Significant engineering advancements were achieved during the construction of the Scheme, including rockbolting and the use of 330 kV transmission lines. Remarkably, the Scheme was completed on time and on budget.

Over 100,000 people from more than 30 countries worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Seventy per cent of these were migrants displaced from their homes in Europe during the Second World War. These workers and their children lived in towns and camps across the Snowy Mountains during construction. While many of these people moved on after completing their work, the Scheme still holds a special significance for workers, their descendants and the wider community as a symbol of multicultural Australia. Cooma’s annual multicultural festival continues to showcase the diversity of cultures in the region.

“The Scheme’s inclusion on the National Heritage List formalises the important chapter the Snowy Scheme has in the Australian story and cements our place in the nation’s history,” said Snowy Hydro Limited Chief Executive Officer Paul Broad.

“Snowy Hydro continues to be an important part of the social fabric of the communities we operate in and we continue to be linked with the Snowy Mountains communities that we helped build. While we have evolved to become a dynamic and growing energy company, the heart of our operations continues to be the Snowy Mountains region.”

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is an audacious and brilliant example of modern Australia—a bold idea brought to life by the hard-work of thousands of people coming to Australia from all over the world.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme remains one of Australia’s largest producers of renewable energy, including nearly a third of renewable energy fed into the eastern mainland grid, and manages water flows for over $3 billion in agricultural produce.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is the 107th place added to Australia’s National Heritage List. For more details see www.environment.gov.au/ heritage/places/national/snowy-mountains-scheme

News

One of the wettest winters on record

12/09/2016

Our weather specialists have been busy monitoring and forecasting the interesting weather patterns that have occurred over the Snowy Mountains region to date in 2016.

The dramatic turn of climate conditions from very dry to very wet has eventuated largely as we were forecasting earlier in the year. Conditions have turned from one of the driest summers on record to one of the wettest autumn/winters on record. This has included some significant inflow events such as around 22 July when we saw the average inflows for the Scheme for the month of July occur in one week alone.

For the statisticians, inflows are now tracking at roughly a 9 per cent probability of exceedance, meaning that we would only expect nine in every 100 years to be wetter. With only four months of the water year passed, we have received well over half of our annual inflows.

As well as the constant and careful management of diversions and forced generation that these very wet conditions require within the Scheme, we are also working closely with stakeholders downstream to make sure key information is exchanged and there are no surprises. This includes the water authorities of NSW Department of Primary Industries – Water, Water NSW and the Murray Darling Basin Authority who operate the major storages downstream of us, as well as our local communities who live and work in an around the Snowy Scheme.

There is still a healthy snowpack on the hill so we are planning for continued wet conditions for spring and early summer which will keep our people and assets on their toes and doing what they do best. The outlook into summer is less certain, but with such a wet catchment we are not expecting things to turn dry any time soon!

News

Experiencing wet conditions

07/09/2016

What a difference a couple of months make! Earlier in the year we were preparing for drier conditions off the back of El Nino but, as our Snowy Hydro climate scientists predicted last edition, we are now experiencing decidedly wetter conditions. With only four months of the water year passed, we have already received well over half of our annual inflows and the snowpack hasn’t started to melt yet. Already we have seen some high inflow events in July which affected landholders around the Murray; and NSW water authorities are carefully watching the Murrumbidgee side to manage any water issues that could arise there.

Snowy Hydro is working with local emergency services and property owners to ensure the lines of communication are open and we update people regularly on the conditions we are experiencing on the waterways across our operations. As the snow melts and inflows into the Scheme increase, it’s important local communities and landholders are kept abreast of any major movements of water. We will continue to work with local authorities and communities in the coming months to carefully manage any water events as they arise.

On a pleasing note, Snowy Hydro has ended the 2015/16 financial year in a strong position. This is the first full year that our recent acquisitions – our gas power station in Colongra and diesel assets in South Australia, as well as Lumo Energy and Direct Connect – have contributed to our financial results.

We hit some significant milestones as a business this year – exceeding more than $2 billion in revenue and passing the one million retail customer mark – a position we have sustained and continue to grow. Our retail businesses – Red Energy, Lumo Energy and Direct Connect – are all working together to attract and retain customers, focusing on superior customer service and industry leading customer satisfaction scores. We have more than 1200 staff working in our retail businesses in Melbourne and we are working to bring them all together under one roof by next year.

Our generation business has also had a strong year. Generation levels have increased as market and operational conditions improved. We are focused on improving the performance of our assets across the fleet and are currently working on a major upgrade of one of the units at Murray 1 in Khancoban, meaning more Snowy Hydro workers will be located in and around that region over the coming months.

We would love to grow support for Red Energy in the Snowy Mountains and, as such, we have been sponsoring local events and festivals and we’re once again sponsoring the ski season this Winter. As a local company with such a long and proud history in the Snowy Mountains, we want to ensure that the communities we live and work in can get the benefit of being our customers, with energy backed by the mighty Snowy Scheme. Our field sales teams have been out and about in the Cooma and Tumut regions over the last few months and will continue to encourage households and businesses to get on board with Red.

Shortly we will be conducting our biennial community research so you may receive a phone call asking you to spend some time talking about Snowy Hydro, how we communicate with you and your understanding of our business and its challenges. If you are approached, we would greatly appreciate you spending the time to give us your thoughts. It’s all confidential and anonymous, of course. It will help us to ensure we are doing the right things to keep you informed about our business. In the meantime, stay safe and dry!

News

Snowy Hydro scores two Australian Business Awards

22/08/2016

Snowy Hydro Limited has been recognised as an ABA100 Winner in The Australian Business Awards 2016 in two categories – Community Contribution and Communication Excellence.  This is the sixth time Snowy Hydro has been recognised by the Australian Business Awards for their outstanding Community Partnerships Program.

Managing Director & CEO of Snowy Hydro, Paul Broad says the award affirms their commitment to taking care of the communities in which they operate and setting the standard as a trusted corporate citizen. The Community Contribution award recognises Snowy Hydro’s achievements in successfully implementing a program that is not only innovative, but as industry leaders push the wider business community towards excellence. The Community Partnerships Program targets investment where it will have a positive impact and generate long-term benefits for the communities of the Snowy Mountains region. The program includes support for the Snowy Hydro SouthCare Rescue Helicopter, Cooma Universities Centre, Young Driver Training as well as local festivals and events.

“We don’t just support charities and not-for-profits; we build partnerships with organisations that are dedicated to supporting better outcomes for the people who live and work in the Snowy Mountains region. The vitality and economic viability of these communities is critically important to Snowy Hydro as these are the towns where our staff and their families live and work.”

In addition, Snowy Hydro was also recognised as an ABA100 Winner in the Communications Excellence category for our Snowy Hydro NEWS quarterly community newsletter.

Over the past decade Snowy Hydro has been dedicated to significantly improving communication with the communities it operates in to build relationships, help people understand its business operations and obligations and improve community engagement.

“Through this newsletter Snowy Hydro has seen a measurable improvement in communication, engagement, perceptions and business understanding in our communities. Being awarded the Australian Business Award for Communication Excellence signals that this communication tool is not only successful, but our number one communication tool with our local communities.
“For over a decade, The Australian Business Awards have recognised organisations that prioritise innovation and technology as drivers of local and international markets,” Australian Business Awards Program Director, Ms Tara Johnston, said.

“The ABA100 Winners have demonstrated a commitment to technologically transformative innovation through business initiatives that have propelled them to success in a highly competitive business environment. These organisations not only position themselves as industry leaders, but also push the wider business community towards excellence.

“Those organisations that can continue to evolve alongside ever changing business models will secure their longevity, continually contributing to the marketplace by disrupting the status quo in a positive way,” Ms Johnston added.

Each year the ABA100 Winners are recognised through a variety of different award categories that demonstrate transformative business and product innovation. Corporate, government and non-government organisations are recognised for their ability to drive innovation through the application of technical expertise in the management of industry leading initiatives, and for the research and development of high-performing products and services.

Initiatives are evaluated based on their transformative capacities via a detailed analysis of the method, execution, performance and outcomes of their initiative. A focus is placed on initiatives that have a demonstrable transformative effect both internally within the business and externally in the wider business community.

For more information on The Australian Business Awards and the 2016 ABA100 Winners go to www.australianbusinessawards.com.au.

News

Winter is on its way

24/06/2016

Winter is almost upon us and that means the Snowy Mountains region is gearing up for the peak tourism season where tens of thousands of visitors come to the region to enjoy the snow, as well as the hospitality and scenery that locals get to enjoy all year round.

Snowy Hydro, through our retail energy company Red Energy, will once again sponsor the ski fields this year so keep your eyes and ears out for our Red Energy signs and sounds on local radio stations at Thredbo, Perisher and Charlottes Pass. As a local company employing hundreds of people in the region, we’re proud to back the Snowy Mountains and get the message out about our 100 per cent Australian owned and operated energy brand – Red Energy – which is backed by the mighty Snowy Hydro.

Red Energy has been a major sponsor of festivals and events across the region throughout the year, including the very successful Back to Cooma Festival over the Easter long weekend and the more recent Festival of the Falling Leaf in Tumut. Our enthusiastic staff are always happy to chat to potential customers about the benefits of switching to Red Energy and we have been working with businesses across the region in the past few months, spruiking the benefits of Red Energy which is an industry leader in customer service.

With the arrival of winter, locals and visitors alike are keen to know all about the predictions for snowfall. Accurately predicting the weather is a tough business. Snowy Hydro is incredibly lucky to have a talented team of climate scientists who work with us to read and interpret climate indicators to give us as in-depth a view as possible about predicted rainfall, snowpack and inflows to the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

But broadly, we are looking to move out of El Niño with a high chance of La Niña meaning the next few months are looking to be wetter than average, but also warmer. This is good news for predicted inflows into the Snowy Scheme and means we will have healthy water levels to sustain higher levels of generation across the Scheme this year and to deliver downstream to town water supplies, the environment and irrigators.

On the generation front, we have just completed major upgrade works at our Tumut 1 Power Station at Cabramurra and will be moving our major works team to Khancoban to start major works on our Murray 1 Power Station. This is good news for the Khancoban community as, at its peak, we can expect around 80 additional staff working in the region with around 40 staff there permanently for the predicted works over at least a six month period. We understand how important it is to invest in and support our local communities to ensure they remain healthy and vibrant for our workforce and their families.

Lastly, an important reminder about safety. At Snowy Hydro, the safety of our employees and the people that live around and interact with the Snowy Scheme, is our highest priority.

We have noticed in recent times an alarming increase in the number of near misses on the roads around the Snowy Mountains. We drill into our staff the importance of safe driving and the majority of our Snowy Hydro car fleet has speed monitors installed which alert us when drivers are driving over the speed limit. Country roads have their own challenges – wildlife including kangaroos and brumbies, snow, rain and visibility challenges, as well as large trucks and caravans.

Please take care on the roads in and around the regions. Adjust your speed to suit the conditions and keep a watch for other drivers who may be doing the wrong thing. Thankfully, none of our near misses has resulted in serious injury to our staff. But you can never be too careful with your life. It’s critically important that everyone goes home in the same shape, or better, each and every day. Take care when you’re out there.

News

Asset Inspection & Maintenance

20/07/2015

Snowy Hydro is again trialling the use of unmanned submersible vehicles to monitor the condition of hard to access Scheme assets.

While the Snowy Scheme is one of the civil engineering wonders of the modern world, many of its assets are difficult to reach due to the Snowy Mountains terrain and the challenges associated with the sheer volume of water flowing through the Scheme.

With the help of Perth-based company Synaya, the Civil Engineering and Dam Safety team are using a Mini Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to conduct inspections of some of our hard to access assets, such as the Guthega Surge Tank and Island Bend intake structure.

The ROV is a small, submersible vehicle operated from the surface of the water via a tether.  Equipped with miniature high-resolution cameras, lights and video recording equipment, they can be used to assess the condition of underwater civil assets.  The information they collect determines future inspection frequencies, maintenance requirements and accurate scoping of projects.

The Mini-ROV, a Seabotix LVB150 weighing approximately 12 kilograms, was used as part of a successful trial where a variety of tests were performed to assess its manoeuvrability, visibility and access.  Results showed that these observation vehicles reduce the safety risk to staff by eliminating the need for someone to physically enter tunnels for inspections, reduce the environmental impact associated with dewatering assets and they also reduce the need for extensive outage times.

It also provides access to extensive visual data, which can be referenced in the future to more accurately assess what stage of the asset’s lifecycle it’s in.

Using technology of this kind is not new for Snowy Hydro; in 2013, we used a larger unmanned underwater vehicle to inspect multiple tunnels within the Scheme for maintenance.  We were awarded an Australian Business Award for Innovation and also broke a world record for the longest, unmanned underwater tunnel inspection. We have also trialled the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to inspect our assets from the air.

In future, this unmanned technology will continue to be used to inspect difficult to access assets of the Scheme ensuring the safety of our people and keeping our assets in peak condition.

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