Generation

The Snowy Scheme

Described as one of the civil engineering wonders of the modern world, the Snowy Scheme consists of eight power stations, 16 major dams, 80 kilometres of aqueducts and 145 kilometres of interconnected tunnels.

POWER STATIONS

The Snowy Scheme consists of eight hydro power stations*, including two that are underground. 

Tumut 3 Power Station is a pumped-hydro facility which is capable of generating and pumping by recycling water between Talbingo Reservoir and Jounama Pondage. It was the first major pumped-hydro plant built in Australia and remains the largest such facility in Australia today .

After the Scheme was built, two new small hydro stations were constructed on existing Snowy Scheme dams: Jindabyne Mini Hydro Power Station, on Jindabyne Dam, and the Jounama Small Hydro Power Station, on Jounama Dam, to capture the otherwise wasted energy of water releases from these storages. 

The eight hydro Snowy power stations comprise 33 turbines with a total generating capacity of 4,100 megawatts (MW) and produce on average, 4,500 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year.

NAME CAPACITY (MW) NUMBER OF UNITS YEAR OF COMPLETION
Tumut 3 1,800 (generating)
600 (pumping)
6 1973 (upgraded 2012)
Murray 1 950 10 1967 (upgrade underway)
Murray 2 550 4 1969
Tumut 1 330 4 1959 (upgrade underway)
Tumut 2 287 4 1962
Blowering 80 1 1955
Guthega 60 2 1955
Jounama Small Hydro 14 1 2010

*Generation assets below 5MW have been excluded which includes Jindabyne Mini Hydro (1MW)

The Scheme’s infrastructure also includes the Jindabyne Pumping Station, completed in 1969. This pumps water from Lake Jindabyne through the Jindabyne-Island Bend Tunnel and Snowy-Geehi trans-mountain Tunnel to Geehi reservoir, where the water is used for electricity generation in Murray 1 and Murray 2 power stations.

DAMS

The Snowy Scheme consists of 16 major dams.

NAMETYPEHEIGHT (m)CREST LENGTH (m)GROSS CAPACITY (103m3)YEAR OF COMPLETION
TalbingoRockfill161.5710.0920,6001970
EucumbeneEarthfill116.5579.14,798,4001958
BloweringRockfill112.2807.71,632,4001968
GeehiRockfill94.1265.221,1001966
Tumut PondConcrete Arch86.3217.952,8001959
JindabyneRockfill71.6335.3689,9001967
ToomaEarthfill67.1304.828,1001961
Island BendConcrete Gravity48.8146.33,0201965
Tumut 2Concrete Gravity46.3118.91,5001961
TantangaraConcrete Gravity45.1216.4254,1001960
JounamaRockfill43.9518.243,5001968
Murray 2Concrete Arch42.7131.11,7601968
GuthegaConcrete Gravity33.5139.01,5501955
Happy JacksConcrete Gravity29.076.22701959
Deep CreekConcrete Gravity21.354.951961
KhancobanEarthfill18.31 066.821,5001966

TUNNELS

The Snowy Scheme consists of 145km of inter-connected tunnels and pipelines and 80km of aqueducts.

The Snowy Scheme comprises two main developments, the northern Snowy-Tumut Development and the southern Snowy-Murray Development. Both developments are connected by tunnels to the Snowy Scheme’s main regulating storage, Lake Eucumbene, on the Eucumbene River.

The table below outlines the details of each of the tunnels.

NAMELENGTH (km)% LINEDYEAR OF COMPLETION
Eucumbene-Snowy23.519.71965
Eucumbene-Tumut22.228.31959
Murrumbidgee-Eucumbene16.617.71961
Snowy-Geehi14.513.31966
Tooma-Tumut14.320.01961
Jindabyne-Island Bend9.810.61968
Guthega4.711.61955
Murray 2 Pressure2.41001969
Tumut 1 Pressure2.41001959
Tumut 1 Tailwater1.354.51959
Tumut 2 Pressure11.31001961

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