"Tasmania is uniquely placed to help lead Australia through its challenging transition towards cleaner sources of energy. Battery of the Nation offers a future that’s clean, reliable and affordable."
Tasmania stands ready to play a much greater role in delivering more clean, reliable and affordable energy to the National Electricity Market.
Tasmania has significant potential in the future development of wind and hydropower, coupled with more transmission and interconnection. It's anticipated these developments will drive billions of dollars in investment and create thousands of jobs in Tasmania, as well as delivering energy security for Tasmania and lowest possible power prices for Tasmanians.
Hydro Tasmania's Battery of the Nation initiative is about developing a pathway of future development opportunities in hydropower system expansion including the potential redevelopment of the Tarraleah hydropower scheme and a pumped hydro project at Lake Cethana. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has supported Battery of the Nation project studies with $5.0 million in funding as part of its Advancing Renewables Program.
The first 750MW Marinus Link cable will trigger upgrades to Hydro Tasmania’s existing hydropower fleet to increase capacity, which includes a potential redevelopment of the Tarraleah hydropower scheme.
The Federal Government announced a funding commitment of $65M for the Tarraleah hydropower scheme which will bring the exciting vision for its future one step closer.
Together with investment from Hydro Tasmania, the roughly $123M project would assess the commercial viability of redeveloping the scheme and enable upgrade works to commence in coming months that provide flexibility for the scheme’s future. Learn more >>
Lake Cethana has been selected as Hydro Tasmania’s preferred site of its top three Tasmanian pumped hydro opportunities and it will now progress to final feasibility.
Over the next 6-12 months, we will seek community feedback on the project including the pumped hydro development and transmission line options before our plans are finalised.
Hydro Tasmania’s team will be in Sheffield, Moina and Lorinna in February and we’re inviting you to come along to our information sessions to find out more about what’s ahead. Learn more >>
Opportunities at Lake Cethana and Lake Rowallan in Tasmania’s North West and near Tribute Power Station on the West Coast have been assessed on a range of technical, environmental, social and economic factors as part of Hydro Tasmania’s pumped hydro feasibility study.
The announcement comes alongside the signing of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Tasmanian and Australian Governments, marked by a visit from the Prime Minister, Tasmanian Premier and Federal and State Energy Ministers to Trevallyn Power Station.
The MOU outlines a shared path forward for further progressing the new 1500MW interconnector Marinus Link and the pumped hydro and hydropower upgrade opportunities that form the Battery of the Nation.
The first 750MW cable will trigger upgrades to Hydro Tasmania’s existing hydropower fleet to increase capacity, which includes a potential redevelopment of the Tarraleah power scheme.
That redevelopment opportunity has received strong support from State and Australian Governments, with a commitment to identify and refine support mechanisms for the project. Thanks to funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, Hydro Tasmania has been considering how the scheme could be reimagined for the future. A $650 million redevelopment of Tarraleah could increase the scheme’s responsiveness, flexibility and double its generation capacity.
The announcement comes alongside the signing of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Tasmanian and Australian Governments to progress Battery of the Nation.
Learn more >>
As Australia’s transition to a greater penetration of renewables ramps up, new analysis from Hydro Tasmania examines the role of storage in supporting a reliable, resilient future energy market and shows that Tasmania’s clean energy stacks up as very cost competitive, further validating the case for an expansion of Tasmania’s hydropower system.
Our white papers, jointly funded with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), take a close look at future modelling and design of the energy market, unlocking investment in much-needed storage and how deep storage is the optimal, least-cost choice to manage future uncertainty during this transition.
Analysis from Hydro Tasmania shows the Battery of the Nation initiative offers significant potential for Tasmania and Victoria to work together to achieve an affordable, reliable clean energy future.
The white paper, How Battery of the Nation can contribute to Victoria’s energy needs and objectives, shows Tasmania can help Victoria mitigate the risks of early or unexpected coal plan retirement, including high costs and unreliable supply, while supporting its renewable energy ambitions.
How Battery of the Nation can contribute to Victoria's energy needs and objectives
With the support of ARENA funding, Hydro Tasmania is advancing studies into three areas:
Building and testing models of a future Tasmanian energy landscape and the expanded role Tasmania could play in the future NEM.
Assessing high potential pumped hydro opportunities in Tasmania, to significantly boost the state’s hydropower capacity.
An assessment of projects that will improve and optimise our existing hydropower generation including the Tarraleah hydropower scheme.
Tasmania can make a significant contribution to the transformation of the NEM in coming years. Battery of the Nation is a key part of the solution needed. It will deliver benefits to the state – giving Tasmanians the lowest possible power prices, creating much-needed jobs in regional areas and bringing broad economic benefit to Tasmania.
Australia is going to need huge-scale renewable development in coming years and Battery of the Nation represents one of the most reliable and cost-competitive solutions for meeting Australia’s future energy needs.
More interconnection will unlock Tasmania’s full renewable energy potential, providing clean, reliable and affordable energy to support a resilient future energy market.
Check out our frequently asked questions page and download fact sheets about our Battery of the Nation initiative.
We anticipate that as work progresses, there will be opportunity for providing services to our projects.
We encourage you to check back for web site updates.
If you would like to contact us, please send us an email.