A raft of energy storage reservoirs are in the pipeline to absorb renewable output from the New England region.
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Former Australian Prime Minister and Upper Hunter landowner Malcolm Turbull, with his wife Lucy, have invested in the projects and this week were granted the go-ahead to draft plans and costings for two pumped hydro schemes at WaterNSW's Glenbawn and Glennies Creek reservoirs in the Upper Hunter.
The combined projects are anticipated to store up to 1000 megawatts and will deliver power to the grid for at least eight hours.
WaterNSW has awarded the agreement following a competitive tender process.
The Upper Hunter Hydro projects are the second projects to be announced under WaterNSW Renewable Energy and Storage Program, following the announcement of ACEN Australia's proposed Burrendong pumped hydro project in December 2022.
That project near Wellington will deliver 800mw of power over a 12 hour window - enough for 400,000 homes - and capture excess production from the Central-Orana Renewable Energy Zone.
Dungowan Dam provides Tamworth with drinking water and will now also be used to generate energy storage - using water in a closed loop system downstream of the actual reservoir - to provide a significant 3000mw of power for up to 10 hours.
Funding this project is French hydro and nuclear giant EDF.
On the upper Macleay, above Geroges Junction, is the planned Oven Mountain pumped hydro scheme, Funded by Alinta Energy, a subsidiary of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, promising 600mw of "on-demand" stored energy.
As with all pumped hydro schemes excess solar and wind energy will lift water from a lower reservoir to an upper pool. In the case of Oven Mountain stored water falling down a 600m vertical tunnel, bored through granite, will drive three 200mw turbines.
Meanwhile the grand-daddy of pumped hydro schemes, Snowy 2.0 - famously announced by then Prime Minister Mr Turnbull in 2017 with completion by now - has slowed progress due to soft soil drilling complications and a $12 billion cost blowout, or three times the initial budget. The project promises to eventually deliver 2200mw of dispatchable power from six turbines with 175 hours of storage.
As a comparison, NSW power generation at the time this story went live (late morning) consisted of 5600mw from black coal, 3000mw from rooftop solar, another 1850mw from solar farms, and 1245mw from wind farms. a small amount of gas and hydro generation made up the rest. This information comes from the very useful NEM Watch published by Renew Economy.
