Hydro Major Projects

Hydro Major Projects is a series of Hydro Tasmania initiatives that are investigating and building our island's capacity to deliver reliable, dispatchable renewable energy through hydropower.

It’s about making better use of existing hydropower assets and power stations, while enhancing our ability to support the National Electricity Market (NEM) with new infrastructure such as pumped hydro power stations.

These projects will help ensure a safe, reliable, low-cost energy supply for all Tasmanians, while delivering thousands of megawatts of clean power to the mainland—supporting a sustainable future for all.

These Major Projects are closely linked to the progression of Project Marinus, which would unlock greater interconnection between Tasmania and mainland Australia.

Hydro Major Projects also include a significant research component, with studies supported by ARENA and Hydro Tasmania across three key areas:

Hydro Major Projects - fast facts

Hydro Tasmania has selected Lake Cethana as the preferred site for pumped hydro development to progress to investment-ready stage.
Pumped hydro acts like a large battery: it stores energy by pumping water uphill when electricity is abundant, then releases water back down through turbines to generate power when demand is high. This balances variable renewable sources like wind and solar.
Tarraleah Redevelopment: Hydro Tasmania is investigating the potential redevelopment of the Tarraleah hydropower scheme.
The project would increase the capacity of the power station to around 190MW, improve dispatchable generation, and create up to 250 jobs during peak construction.
Hydro Tasmania research has identified up to ~400MW of existing seasonal hydropower capacity that can be unlocked by the first 750MW cable of Marinus Link, without requiring additional asset upgrades.

For more detailed information on Hydro Major Projects, visit https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/our-major-projects