PULLING POWER

DRY SPELL FORCES HYDRO TO FIRE UP GAS STATION

HYDRO Tasmania has been forced to fire up its gas-powered Tamar Valley power station and import electricity from interstate to shore up energy storage as the state battles a dry autumn and winter.

As water storage levels dropped to 34.7 per cent on Monday — the lowest level since last July — Hydro announced it turned off the gas turbines last month. A Hydro spokesman said the turbines were shut on June 11 because they would not be needed over wetter winter months.

“The intention remains to run it on and off as required ... so it’ll next run whenever we decide to,” the spokesman said.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the record dry during June was likely to continue. Demand is high for electricity across the state because of cold weather, which caused outages

in Hobart on Monday because of pressure on the network.

Since January, the Tamar Valley power station has generated nearly 750GWh as Tasmania’s water storage systems fell from 44 per cent to the present level.

As well Hydro Tasmania imported 1154GWh of electricity over Basslink compared with 241GWh of exports.

In 2015, the Government moved towards a sale of the Tamar Valley power station until an extraordinarily dry spring and the Basslink outage that triggered an energy crisis put the plan on hold.

Advice to the Treasurer Peter Gutwein from the Department of Treasury about the intended sale has never been publicly released.

The Government announced that the sale was off the table during the $140 million, six month energy crisis.

Labor energy spokesman Scott Bacon said the state’s reliance on the power station had once “exposed the incompetence of (Energy Minister) Matthew Groom”.

“The power station has played a crucial role in recent months preventing storage levels dipping below 30 per cent,” Mr Bacon said.

“What is obvious is the catastrophic disaster Matthew Groom would have caused by selling the power station.

“His incompetence significantly contributed to the energy crisis but if the station was sold, the consequences would have been much worse.

“The Minister must explain why the station has been turned off, how long it will be offline and what impact this will have on storages?

But Mr Groom labelled Labor’s claims as “farcical” and “scaremongering”.

“Are Labor seriously now wanting Hydro to burn expensive gas throughout winter instead of using water available in our current high storages?” Mr Groom said.

“This sort of failed thinking is the reason why household power prices rose by 65 per cent during Labor’s time in government.

“Our dam levels are well above the target for the end of June and well above the target proposed by the Independent Energy Security Taskforce.”

Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council chief executive Wayne Bould said it was just as well the power station was not sold.

“There is a forecast dry spring and without it (the power station) we may well have ended up with another crisis,” he said.

Hydro chief executive Steve Davy said Hydro had set a target for storages of at least 30 per cent for June 30.

“Our storages are in a strong position at 34.7 per cent as we approach what’s usually the wettest part of the year,” he said. “While the Energy Security Taskforce deliberates, Hydro Tasmania has managed storages with extra conservatism, and taken steps to further enhance climate modelling.”

After the energy crisis the Government lifted the “prudent minimum” level of the Tasmania’s hydro storages from 25 per cent to 30 per cent.

The reliance on the gas powered station comes at a critical time as negotiations over a gas transmission contract continue between Hydro Tasmania and the owners of the Tasmanian Gas Pipeline.

It is believed Hydro is prepared to go to arbitration in September if agreement has not been reached with Tasmanian Gas Pipeline Pty Ltd.

Tasmanian Gas Pipeline statistics show gas usage climbed to a high of 65 terajoules in May, compared with 12.59TJ before the gas station was fired up.