The $30M station at Talbingo, which utilises water that passes through the Jounama Dam, will produce 55,000MWh/yr and was officially opened at the end of last month.
More than 350 people worked on the project – a mix of Snowy Hydro employees and contractors from both the local area and further afield.
Major works included a 30m high, 13m diameter silo that was built on the downstream side of Jounama Dam to house the turbine generator and associated control systems.
To accommodate the new hydro power station, the existing river diversion tunnel was modified, which involved teams of divers working 30m under water for a six-month period to open up the intake of the river diversion tunnel. Under the dam wall the original 500 tonne concrete plug was removed to allow a new 4m diameter, 60m long steel pipeline to be installed to carry water to the power station.
The Kaplan turbine installed in the Jounama station is the first of its kind for the Snowy Scheme. The station connects to the electricity grid via an 11kV transmission line which extends from the station to a new switch yard, which in turn connects to the 66kV Talbingo-Tumut transmission line via 700m of upgraded lines.
