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.