Meadowbank Power Station
| Company type | Power station |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hydroelectric power generation |
| Founded | 1967 |
| Headquarters | Central Highlands, Tasmania , Australia |
| Products | Electricity |
| Owner | Hydro Tasmania |
The Meadowbank Power Station is a hydroelectric facility utilizing a run-of-the-river system, situated within Tasmania's Central Highlands region in Australia. It harnesses water from the Lower River Derwent catchment area and is under the ownership of Hydro Tasmania.
Technical details
As the concluding installation in the eleven-station Derwent hydroelectric scheme, Meadowbank is positioned downstream of Meadowbank Lake, which is impounded by the concrete buttress Meadowbank Dam on the Derwent River. The station's infrastructure comprises the dam itself, an intake structure equipped with a flow shut-off gate, a short penstock integrated with the dam, the power station building, generator apparatus, and associated equipment.
Commissioned in 1967 by the Hydro Electric Corporation (TAS), it initially operated with a single Boving Kaplan-type turbine rated at . In 2015, this was modernized with an Andritz Kaplan turbine, enhancing its generating capacity to .
The turbine features a five-bladed runner enclosed within a concrete spiral casing secured by pre-stressed cables that also contribute to the foundation's stability. Notably, the station does not include an inlet valve. Its yearly electricity production is roughly , which is delivered to TasNetworks through parallel Siemens generator transformers stepping voltage from 11 kV to 220 kV, connected to an external switchyard.
Water discharged from the power station is returned directly to the River Derwent.
2016 energy crisis
During the 2016 Tasmanian energy crisis, precipitated by failure of the Basslink interconnector, diesel generators were installed at Meadowbank Power Station to provide supplementary power support to Tasmania’s electrical grid.
See also
External links
- Hydro Tasmania information on the Lower Derwent