Renewal for Hydro’s proud legacy
Hydro Tasmania’s pivotal role in Australia’s energy future builds on the work of generations, including migrants, says Evangelista Albertini
JUS T as past generations built Tasmania’ s iconic hydro power schemes we rely on for renewable energy today, the Battery of the Nation concept will be a lasting legacy for the generations of Tasmanians that follow us.
Tasmania’ s history of hydro power development has made our state a global leader in renewable energy. In energy and engineering circles “the hydro” is known and admired, and an example of what a renewable energy future looks like.
The building of the iconic hydro schemes saw numerous audacious achievements, many engineering first sin fact, and required a vast amount of infrastructure to be built in hostile conditions. Like any history as long as ours there have been challenges along the way, however what resulted is a rich legacy of knowledge that continues to deliver enormous benefits for Tasmania.
Tasmania’ s renewable goal to reach 200 percent of our current needs by 2040 signals another exciting chapter. Like the past construction of the hydro schemes, energy can be the vehicle for transforming the economic prosperity of our state.
As the new chief executive of Hydro Tasmania, it’ s an honour to have stewardship of this iconic business at such a pivot al and exciting time. Hydro Tasmania has a key role in supporting large-scale adoption of renewable energy in this country. Hydro generation complements other renewables such as wind and solar, because it is dispatch able and able to ramp up and down quickly. Coupled with our deep storage capability, we can provide firm and reliable energy as intermittent forms increasingly penetrate the grid. More connection between Tasmania and mainland Australia is the key to unlocking this capability.
This is why there is such strong Tasmanian and Australian government support for Marin us Link. The business case is clear about the project’ s benefits, that’ s why the market experts—the Australian Energy Market Operator—have Marinus Link as an important part of the longterm plan. There are the immediate jobs and investment that will assist short-to-medium term economic recovery. Then there are the jobs and economic activity created by the wind generation construction projects that Marin us Link enables. This build of large-scale wind generation then triggers the construction of a pumped hydro station to firm all this additional intermittent wind generation. That brings the benefits of trading more clean energy into the National Electricity Market and supports new industries like hydrogen. Like the hydro power scheme construction of old, we stand on the cusp of renewable energy again being a transform at ive force.
Why am I so confident of this? While I’ m new to the CEO role, I’m a familiar face at Hydro Tasmania. I was most recently chief asset management and investment officer, over seeing passionate and talented engineers and trades people that deliver over $100 m of capital works annually. Before that I was chief operations officer for nine years. I admit I also have a sentiment al fondness for the Hydro because I began my working life here as a young trainee way back in 1982 and was able to leverage the exceptional training I was give nina variety of roles throughout Australia and overseas before returning to Tassie with my wife Ruth to start our family.
As the son of a migrant father and growing up with the descendants of European mi grants who worked on the construction of the hydro schemes, I am proud to lead an organisation that has played such a positive role in the lives of so many Tasmanians and the immigrants whose hard work resulted in the business I now have the privilege to lead.
I’ ve seen major achievements, from development of Australia’ s first major wind farm, to worldleading research and projects in climate science, to innovative power grid son King and Flinders islands that have enabled record levels of non-synchronous generation, meaning the islands have run on only renewable energy for extended periods.
There have been challenges too—periods of significant drought, bush fire sand floods threateninginfrastructure.My team formulated the response to the energy security challenge of 2015-2016 where we built several diesel power stations in quick time to ensure continued supply of reliable electricity. Though it was tough, I’ ve never been prouder of the team that does the work to ensure Tasmanians’ lights stay on.
The employees and those who came before us are the reason Tasmania continues to punch above its weight in renewable energy production and leads the way in facilitating the transition to the clean energy future.
In envisaging and achieving anything of consequence, it is unrealistic to expect that everything always goes right, and we should be mature enough to acknowledge mistakes, be open to constructive criticism and committed to learning from the past. However, we should also aspire to stride purpose fully to new goals. We are ready to deliver the Battery of the Nation, playing our part in achieving Tasmania’ s bold vision for renewable energy. This is what our state, the country and the planet require. All of us in the electricity supply industry need to roll up our sleeve sand make this a reality.
At Hydro Tasmania we are stewards of an incredible legacy and committed to build on this and hand it over to the next generation in even better shape.
LIKE PAST CONSTRUCTION OF THE HYDRO SCHEMES, ENERGY CAN BE THE VEHICLE FOR TRANSFORMING THE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY OF OUR STATE