"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." - Steve Davy, Hydro Tasmania CEO
Analysis released today by Hydro Tasmania demonstrates that additional Bass Strait interconnection would immediately unlock many hundreds of megawatts of latent dispatchable capacity in the Tasmanian hydropower system, and make it available to a transforming National Electricity Market (NEM).
The White Paper The potential of Tasmania’s renewable generation assets with more interconnection has been developed as part of Hydro Tasmania’s work to support Tasmania’s ambition to become the renewable energy Battery of the Nation.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has committed up to $5.0 million for Battery of the Nation project studies, as part of its Advancing Renewables Program. Download the White Paper >
The Battery of the Nation initiative is about investigating and developing a pathway of future development opportunities - wind, hydropower system expansion including pumped hydro and more transmission and interconnection.
Realising this vision would position Tasmania to make a much greater contribution to the National Electricity Market (NEM).
As part of this vision, and with the support of Australian Renewable Energy Agency (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 Power Scheme.
Future State NEM analysis-Executive Summary
Future State NEM analysis-Full Report
Pumped Hydro Knowledge Sharing Report
The findings demonstrate that Tasmania can make a significant contribution to the transformation of the NEM in coming years. It further strengthens the case for more interconnection across Bass Strait, which would also unlock Tasmania’s untapped wind energy potential.
Battery of the Nation is about locking in our island’s energy security and giving Tasmanians the lowest possible power prices. It offers a future that’s clean, reliable and affordable.
Battery of the Nation is not a Hydro Tasmania initiative; it’s a Tasmanian initiative. It’s designed to serve and support our communities, and will involve opportunities and contributions from right across the renewable energy sector.
Modelling shows Battery of the Nation would create billions of dollars of investment and thousands of jobs in regional Tasmania over 10 to 15 years.
Doubling Tasmania’s clean energy would also create a surplus, beyond our own needs, to support mainland Australia. That’s crucial to replace the coal power that’s being phased out.
More interconnection makes all of this viable - allowing Tasmania to get its product to market. Even with the cost of developing further interconnection, our analysis confirms Battery of the Nation is a front-runner that’s extremely competitive and cost-effective.
Check out our frequently asked questions page and download fact sheets about our Battery of the Nation initiative.
It is still early stages but 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.