The Tarraleah Power Station Redevelopment seeks to upgrade the existing Tarraleah Hydropower Scheme. The current scheme produces around 6.5 per cent of Hydro Tasmania’s total annual production. Many of the scheme’s components have aged and there are physical and operational constraints, making it unsuitable for the future demand for electricity.
The redevelopment is estimated to double the power station’s capacity from 104 megawatts (MW) to 220 MW with 20 hours of storage per cycle. The project will be developed by Hydro Tasmania.
Key Dates
| Aug 2021 | Project Announcement |
Funding contributions
| Federal Government | |
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In 2018, ARENA provided $2.5 million in funding which was matched by Hydro Tasmania for the feasibility study. |
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Procurement
| Procuring Agency: | Hydro Tasmania |
PROJECT HISTORY
| Jun 2018 | The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and Hydro Tasmania jointly provided $5 million in funding to support a feasibility assessment into the redevelopment of the Tarraleah power station. |
| Feb 2021 | Feasibility study completed. |
| Aug 2021 | The Tasmanian Government confirmed the $700 million project would proceed in its 2021-22 Budget. |
| Apr 2022 | The Federal Government released a Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO) which announced an additional $65 million in funding to the project. |
| Apr 2023 | The project was referred for public comment on the EPBC Act portal, closing 19 April. |
| Jun 2023 | Hydro Tasmania announced that they were progressing the preparation of environment and development applications to support the state and local government project assessment process. |
| Oct 2023 | Hydro Tasmania announced the preferred option for the site: full redevelopment with pressurised conveyance to deliver water from Lake King Williams to the new power station. The preferred option has a revised cost of $1.05 billion, an increase from the previous estimate of $700 million. |
| Dec 2023 | Work is underway on a program of works to upgrade the area around Lake King William. Dam safety improvements have been completed at Mossy Marsh Dam. The key pieces of infrastructure being constructed are a new intake, a downstream tunnel portal and a new one kilometre tunnel. The new intake will connect to a future conveyance that will feed water into Tarraleah Power Station. |
| Jan 2024 | The project received its required Environment Protection Notice from the Environment Protection Authority Tasmania. |
| Jul 2024 | Consultation opened on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement Guidelines for the project, with submissions closing on 12 August 2024. |
Estimated Total Cost
(2023)
Sector
Energy
Procurement approach
Unconfirmed |
Location
Tasmania |
Resources
