Hydro Tasmania
Encyclopedia
Hydro Tasmania, known for most of its history as The HEC, is the government owned enterprise
which is the predominant electricity
generator in the state of Tasmania
, Australia
. The HEC was originally oriented towards hydro-electricity, due to Tasmania's dramatic topography and relatively high rainfall in the central and western parts of the state.
Today Hydro Tasmania operates 27 hydro-electric, one thermal
and two diesel
power stations. It also has one wind farm
in service, with expansion and two additional wind farms in progress of being approved.
. Prior to that two private hydro-electric stations had been opened the Launceston City Council's Duck Reach Power Station, opened 1895 on the South Esk River
(it was the first hydro-electric power station in the southern hemisphere) and the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
's Lake Margaret Power Station, opened in 1914. Both these power stations where taken over by the HEC and closed in 1955 and 2006 respectively
Following the Second World War in the 1940s and early 1950s, many migrants came to Tasmania to work for the HEC with construction of dams and sub-stations. This was similar to the Snowy Mountains Scheme
in New South Wales and similar effects in bringing in a significant number of people into the local community enriching the social fabric and culture of each state. Most constructions in this era were concentrated in the centre of the island.
As the choice of rivers and catchments in the central highlands were exhausted, the planners and engineers began serious surveying of the rivers of the west and south west regions of the state. The long term vision of those within the HEC and the politicians in support of the process, was for continued utilisation of all of the state's water resources.
As a consequence of such a vision, the politicians and HEC bureaucrats were able to create the upper Gordon river power development schemes despite worldwide dismay at the loss of the original Lake Pedder. The hydro-industrialisation of Tasmania was seen as paramount above all, and the complaints from outsiders were treated with disdain.
Following the flooding of Lake Pedder
by the HEC for the upper Gordon Power Development and the subsequent backlash against the HEC incursions into the south west wilderness of Tasmania
, environmental groups of the 1970s and 80s alerted the rest of Australia to the continued power that the HEC had over the Tasmanian environment and politics.
Numbers of Tasmanian politicians either rose or fell on their alignment with the support of the HEC and its power development schemes in the south west and West Coast
of Tasmania.
When the HEC proposed a dam on the Gordon River, sited below the Franklin River, there was widespread and vigorous opposition. During the Franklin River 'No Dams' campaign it was common for members of families to be in conflict with one another by being aligned with the HEC proposals or the Conservationists.
The Tasmanian Government attempted to resolve the dispute by offering a compromise dam, sited on the Gordon River above the Olga River, which would have avoided flooding the Franklin River. However, almost no-one wanted this compromise. Conservationist were concerned that the Franklin River area and surrounding wilderness would be damaged, and those in favour of a dam preferred an option that would utilise the Franklin's water as well as the Gordon's water.
The Tasmanian Government then offered a referendum on the issue, which only offered two choices: the Gordon below Franklin dam and the Gordon above Olga dam. There was widespread condemnation that the referendum did not offer a 3rd choice of not having any dam on the Gordon River, and various opinions were offered as to the best way of communicating this at the ballot box. As it turned out, of the 92% of eligible voters to attended the voting booths that day, 47% voted for the Gordon below Franklin option, with the remainder voting informally (45%) or for the Gordon above Olga option (8%). The conservationists were ultimately successful in their campaign to stop any dam on the Gordon River, and the proposal and early works on the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam
ended in 1983 when it was blockaded by the environmentalists and the state lost a High Court
challenge to the Commonwealth's powers.
The compromise between the State and Federal government and conservationists led the HEC to see the end of an over fifty year long dam making enterprise in the construction of the Henty River and King River power developments.
Since the late 1990s HEC water storages have been progressively drawn down due to power demand exceeding long term supply, the overcoming of which was the original reason the Gordon-below-Franklin dam was proposed. The shortfall has been offset first by drawing down water storage and in latter years through increasing volumes of fossil fuel power generation, at first fuelled by oil and more recently by gas and, via the Basslink
cable link to Victoria, coal.
The people who had been employees of the HEC in the 1940s to the 1980s were an important part of the population of Tasmania, and the heritage and oral history issues of the institution have been acknowledged by the recent management of Hydro Tasmania in employing people to make a reasonable record of that era, and earlier.
The responsibility to its heritage has not prevented the organisation in its move to rationalise, and the current status of the Lake Margaret Power Station
has led the Hydro to have produced a comprehensive heritage survey of the site prior to its decommissioning as an active part of the system.
which transmits it across the state, and Aurora Energy
, the retail arm, which sells and distributes it to customers. This was in anticipation of Tasmania joining the National Electricity Market
, which occurred in May 2005.
Hydro Tasmania is presently (March 2010) a government owned enterprise. There is a case in Tasmania for the company to be privatised
; both to raise revenue and to improve company efficiency. The Liberals
supported privatisation in the 1990s but failed to convince the public of its merits. They have now reversed this policy. The Labor Party
and the Tasmanian Greens
have never openly supported privatisation; however many speculate that the Labor Party will support this move in the future. Some evidence of this first arose in late 2003 when Labor allowed Hydro Tasmania to sell its subsidiary software business, Hydstra, to a German competitor and again in 2005 when they allowed the sale of part of its financial interests in Wind Farm
company, Roaring 40s
to a Chinese company CLP Power Asia. However the present policy of all three major political parties is against privatisation and community opinion mostly supports public ownership.
, was considered to be part of the last hydro-electric power development in Tasmania. The 1,000 GWH Project has seen upgrades to component parts of existing superstructure operated by the Hydro, and on-going progress towards being a carbon neutral operation.
Associate Commissioners
Source of later names from Felton Tickleblly tales, pp. 481–482.
Other publications
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
which is the predominant electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
generator in the state of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The HEC was originally oriented towards hydro-electricity, due to Tasmania's dramatic topography and relatively high rainfall in the central and western parts of the state.
Today Hydro Tasmania operates 27 hydro-electric, one thermal
Thermal power station
A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this...
and two diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
power stations. It also has one wind farm
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
in service, with expansion and two additional wind farms in progress of being approved.
Establishment and unfettered power
In 1914, the State Government set up the Hydro-Electric Department (changed to the Hydro-Electric Commission in 1929) to complete the first HEC power station, the Waddamana power stationsWaddamana Power Stations, Tasmania
Waddamana Hydro-Electric power station was the first hydro-electric power plant ever operated by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Department , opened in 1916.- Conception and Construction:...
. Prior to that two private hydro-electric stations had been opened the Launceston City Council's Duck Reach Power Station, opened 1895 on the South Esk River
South Esk River
The South Esk River is the longest river in Tasmania. It starts in the mountains near Fingal flowing through Avoca, Evandale, Longford, Hadspen and finally Launceston. The river is dammed at Trevallyn Dam near Launceston and used for the city's Hydro Electricity scheme...
(it was the first hydro-electric power station in the southern hemisphere) and the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on the 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as Mount Lyell. Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.Following consolidation of...
's Lake Margaret Power Station, opened in 1914. Both these power stations where taken over by the HEC and closed in 1955 and 2006 respectively
Following the Second World War in the 1940s and early 1950s, many migrants came to Tasmania to work for the HEC with construction of dams and sub-stations. This was similar to the Snowy Mountains Scheme
Snowy Mountains Scheme
The Snowy Mountains scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation complex in south-east Australia. It consists of sixteen major dams; seven power stations; a pumping station; and 225 kilometres of tunnels, pipelines and aqueducts and was constructed between 1949 and 1974. The Chief engineer was Sir...
in New South Wales and similar effects in bringing in a significant number of people into the local community enriching the social fabric and culture of each state. Most constructions in this era were concentrated in the centre of the island.
As the choice of rivers and catchments in the central highlands were exhausted, the planners and engineers began serious surveying of the rivers of the west and south west regions of the state. The long term vision of those within the HEC and the politicians in support of the process, was for continued utilisation of all of the state's water resources.
As a consequence of such a vision, the politicians and HEC bureaucrats were able to create the upper Gordon river power development schemes despite worldwide dismay at the loss of the original Lake Pedder. The hydro-industrialisation of Tasmania was seen as paramount above all, and the complaints from outsiders were treated with disdain.
Interrupted dam making
Lake Pedder
Lake Pedder was once a natural lake, located in the southwest of Tasmania, Australia but the name is now used in an official sense to refer to the much larger artificial impoundment and diversion lake formed when the original lake was expanded by damming in 1972 by the Hydro Electric Commission of...
by the HEC for the upper Gordon Power Development and the subsequent backlash against the HEC incursions into the south west wilderness of Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, environmental groups of the 1970s and 80s alerted the rest of Australia to the continued power that the HEC had over the Tasmanian environment and politics.
Numbers of Tasmanian politicians either rose or fell on their alignment with the support of the HEC and its power development schemes in the south west and West Coast
West Coast, Tasmania
The West Coast of Tasmania is the part of the state that is strongly associated with wilderness, mining and tourism, rough country and isolation...
of Tasmania.
When the HEC proposed a dam on the Gordon River, sited below the Franklin River, there was widespread and vigorous opposition. During the Franklin River 'No Dams' campaign it was common for members of families to be in conflict with one another by being aligned with the HEC proposals or the Conservationists.
The Tasmanian Government attempted to resolve the dispute by offering a compromise dam, sited on the Gordon River above the Olga River, which would have avoided flooding the Franklin River. However, almost no-one wanted this compromise. Conservationist were concerned that the Franklin River area and surrounding wilderness would be damaged, and those in favour of a dam preferred an option that would utilise the Franklin's water as well as the Gordon's water.
The Tasmanian Government then offered a referendum on the issue, which only offered two choices: the Gordon below Franklin dam and the Gordon above Olga dam. There was widespread condemnation that the referendum did not offer a 3rd choice of not having any dam on the Gordon River, and various opinions were offered as to the best way of communicating this at the ballot box. As it turned out, of the 92% of eligible voters to attended the voting booths that day, 47% voted for the Gordon below Franklin option, with the remainder voting informally (45%) or for the Gordon above Olga option (8%). The conservationists were ultimately successful in their campaign to stop any dam on the Gordon River, and the proposal and early works on the Gordon-below-Franklin Dam
Franklin Dam
The Franklin Dam or Gordon-below-Franklin Dam project was a proposed dam on the Gordon River in Tasmania, Australia, that was never constructed. The movement that eventually led to the project's cancellation became one of most significant environmental campaigns in Australian history.The dam was...
ended in 1983 when it was blockaded by the environmentalists and the state lost a High Court
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...
challenge to the Commonwealth's powers.
The compromise between the State and Federal government and conservationists led the HEC to see the end of an over fifty year long dam making enterprise in the construction of the Henty River and King River power developments.
The limits reached
The conservationists and the HEC in the 1980s acknowledged that there were a limited range of options for further power development schemes, and it was inevitable that the substantial workforce within the HEC specifically employed in the investigation and development of further dams would eventually become redundant.Since the late 1990s HEC water storages have been progressively drawn down due to power demand exceeding long term supply, the overcoming of which was the original reason the Gordon-below-Franklin dam was proposed. The shortfall has been offset first by drawing down water storage and in latter years through increasing volumes of fossil fuel power generation, at first fuelled by oil and more recently by gas and, via the Basslink
Basslink
Basslink is a high-voltage direct current cable link crossing Bass Strait, connecting the Loy Yang Power Station, Victoria on the Australian mainland to the George Town substation in northern Tasmania...
cable link to Victoria, coal.
Legacy of the HEC
The organisation clearly was an important one in the history of Tasmania, and thousands of Tasmanians have been employed or are related to employees and past employees. In recognition of its place in history, not just in environmental issues controversy, the organisation has employed staff to work on the legacy and cultural heritage of the Hydro.The people who had been employees of the HEC in the 1940s to the 1980s were an important part of the population of Tasmania, and the heritage and oral history issues of the institution have been acknowledged by the recent management of Hydro Tasmania in employing people to make a reasonable record of that era, and earlier.
The responsibility to its heritage has not prevented the organisation in its move to rationalise, and the current status of the Lake Margaret Power Station
Lake Margaret Power Station, Tasmania
The Lake Margaret Power Station is the third oldest hydro-electric power plant in Tasmania, Australia. It was constructed between 1911 and 1914, by the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company...
has led the Hydro to have produced a comprehensive heritage survey of the site prior to its decommissioning as an active part of the system.
From HEC to Hydro Tasmania
Hydro Tasmania was formed on the disaggregation of the Hydro-Electric Commission on July 1, 1998. This resulted in the division of the formerly government owned department into three companies—Hydro Tasmania which generates the power, Transend NetworksTransend Networks
The electrical transmission company Transend Networks Pty Ltd was formed by the disaggregation of the Hydro Electric Commission in Tasmania, Australia, on 1 July 1998...
which transmits it across the state, and Aurora Energy
Aurora Energy
The electricity retail company Aurora Energy was formed by the dis-aggregation of the Hydro Electric Commission in Tasmania, Australia, on 1 July 1998...
, the retail arm, which sells and distributes it to customers. This was in anticipation of Tasmania joining the National Electricity Market
National Electricity Market
The National Electricity Market is the name of the Australian wholesale electricity market and the associated synchronous electricity transmission grid....
, which occurred in May 2005.
Hydro Tasmania is presently (March 2010) a government owned enterprise. There is a case in Tasmania for the company to be privatised
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
; both to raise revenue and to improve company efficiency. The Liberals
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
supported privatisation in the 1990s but failed to convince the public of its merits. They have now reversed this policy. The Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
and the Tasmanian Greens
Tasmanian Greens
The Tasmanian Greens are a political party in Australia which developed from numerous environmental campaigns in Tasmania, including the flooding of Lake Pedder and the Franklin Dam campaign...
have never openly supported privatisation; however many speculate that the Labor Party will support this move in the future. Some evidence of this first arose in late 2003 when Labor allowed Hydro Tasmania to sell its subsidiary software business, Hydstra, to a German competitor and again in 2005 when they allowed the sale of part of its financial interests in Wind Farm
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
company, Roaring 40s
Roaring 40s
Roaring 40s is an electricity generator formed in partnership between Hydro Tasmania and China Light & Power . Since the beginning in 2005, Roaring 40s’ has 13 sites in operation or in planning in Australia, India, Hong Kong and mainland China. Cathedral Rocks, Woolnorth, Waterloo Wind Farm and...
to a Chinese company CLP Power Asia. However the present policy of all three major political parties is against privatisation and community opinion mostly supports public ownership.
Facing the future
The Hydro of the first decade of the 21st century saw the loss of the old dam building generation, to an adept at accommodating larger world wide trends—The Anthony Power DevelopmentAnthony Power Development
Anthony Power Development - was a scheme for damming small parts of the upper catchment of the Pieman River in Western Tasmania by the Hydro Tasmania as the last dam making scheme before the end of large scale construction of dams for hydro electricity in Tasmania.It was developed in two parts -...
, was considered to be part of the last hydro-electric power development in Tasmania. The 1,000 GWH Project has seen upgrades to component parts of existing superstructure operated by the Hydro, and on-going progress towards being a carbon neutral operation.
The Hydro-Electric Department (1914–1930)
Chief Engineer and General Manager- Sir John Butters C.M.G., M.B.E., M.I.C.E. (1914–1924)
- H.A. Curtis, A.M.I.E. Aust., A.Am.I.E.E. (1925–1930)
The Hydro-Electric Commission (1930–1996)
Commissioner- H.A. Curtis (1930–1933)
- W.E.Maclean (1940–1946)
- Sir Allan Knight (1946–1977)
- Russell Ashton (1977–1987)
- Acting Ron Harvey (1987–1989)
- Graeme Longbottom (1990–1994)
- Acting Gary Baker (1995–1996)
Associate Commissioners
- C.B. Davies (1930–1941)
- M.W. Simmons (1930)
- R.L. Parker (1931–1935)
- J.E. Heritage (1935–1947)
- C.E.H. Ferguson (1941–1947)
- W.H. Nicol (1947–1954)
- A Burn (1951–1959)
The Hydro-Electric Corporation (1996–1999)
CEO- Dan Norton (1996–1998)
- Gary Baker (1998–1999)
Hydro Tasmania (1999-present)
CEO- Geoff Willis (1999-2006)
- Vince Hawksworth (2006-2010)
- Roy Adair June (2010–)
Source of later names from Felton Tickleblly tales, pp. 481–482.
Ministers
- The Hon. Sir John C McPhee (1930–1934)
- The Hon. Sir Walter Lee (1934)
- The Hon. T.H. Davies (1934–1942)
- The Hon. Sir Robert CosgroveRobert CosgroveSir Robert Cosgrove KCMG was an Australian politician, trade unionist, and twice Premier of Tasmania from 18 December 1939 to 18 December 1947 and 25 February 1948 to 26 August 1958....
(1942–1958) - The Hon. Eric ReeceEric ReeceEric Elliott Reece, AC was Premier of Tasmania on two occasions: from 26 August 1958 to 26 May 1969, and from 3 May 1972 to 31 March 1975.-Biography:...
(1958)
See also
- List of active power stations in Tasmania
- Duck Reach Power Station, TasmaniaDuck Reach Power Station, TasmaniaDuck Reach Power Station was the first publicly owned hydro-electric plant in the Southern Hemisphere, and provided the Tasmanian city of Launceston with hydro-electric power from its construction in 1895 to its closure in 1955.-Construction:...
Further reading
Hydro Tasmania publications-
- Fenton, Heather (2008) Ticklebelly tales and other stories from the people of the Hydro, Hobart: Hydro Tasmania. ISBN 9780646477244 (hbk.)
- Garvie, R. M. H. (1962) A million horses: Tasmania's power in the mountains Hobart: Hydro-Electric Commission, Tasmania.
- Lupton, Roger. (1999) Lifeblood: Tasmania's Hydro Power Publisher: Edgecliff, N.S.W. Focus Publishing, ISBN 0875359338], noting (C) Hydro Tasmania and pp. 428–430 Reviewers Biographies - 13 HEC staff and retired staff as reviewers of Luptons work - as a commissioned history
- Quirk, Marilyn. & Arts Tasmania. & Hydro Tasmania (2006), Echoes on the mountain: remarkable migrant stories from the hydro villages of the Tasmanian central highlands' Quirk. 'Heybridge, Tas.
- Scanlon, Andrew. (1995) Water power 2nd ed. [1st ed 1990] Hobart: Hydro-Electric Commission, Tasmania. ISBN 0-7246-4231-5
Other publications
- Kellow, Aynsley J. (1996) Transforming power : the politics of electricity planning. Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University. ISBN 0521471222 (hbk) ISBN 0521476976 (pbk.)
- Thompson, Peter. (1981) Power in Tasmania Hawthorn, Vic: Australian Conservation Foundation. ISBN 0-85802-067-X
External links
- http://www.hydro.com.au Hydro Tasmania
- http://www.momentum.com.au Momentum
- http://www.entura.com.au Entura
- http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wha/wherein/detail.html