Meadowbank Power Station

Meadowbank Dam
Location of the Meadowbank Dam in Tasmania
Country	Australia
Location	Central Highlands Tasmania
Coordinates	42°30′00″S 146°38′24″E
Purpose	Power
Status	Operational
Opening date	1966 (1966)
Owner(s)	Hydro Tasmania
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Barrage
Impounds	River Derwent
Height	43 metres (141 ft)
Length	265 metres (869 ft)
Dam volume	86 thousand cubic metres (3.0×10^^6 cu ft)
Spillways	1
Spillway type	Controlled
Spillway capacity	5,239 cubic metres per second (185,000 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates	Meadowbank Lake
Total capacity	59,650 megalitres (2,107×10^^6 cu ft)
Catchment area	6,561 square kilometres (2,533 sq mi)
Surface area	62 hectares (150 acres)
Meadowbank Power Station
Coordinates	42°36′36″S 146°50′24″E
Operator(s)	Hydro Tasmania
Commission date	1967 (1967)
Type	Run-of-the-river
Hydraulic head	26 metres (85 ft)
Turbines	1 x 41.8 MW (56,100 hp) Andritz Kaplan-type turbine
Installed capacity	43.8 megawatts (58,700 hp)
Capacity factor	0.51
Annual generation	187 gigawatt-hours (670 TJ)
Website hydro.com.au/clean-energy/our-power-stations/derwent

The Meadowbank Power Station is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power station located in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia. The power station is situated on the Lower River Derwent catchment and is owned and operated by Hydro Tasmania.

Technical details

Part of the Derwent scheme that comprises eleven hydroelectric power stations, the Meadowbank Power Station is the final power station in the scheme. The power station is located above ground, below Meadowbank Lake, a small storage created by the concrete buttressed Meadowbank Dam on the Derwent River. The facilities at the Meadowbank Power Station are simple and include the dam, intake structure with intake gate designed to cut off full flow, a short penstock which is integral with the dam, the power station building, generator equipment and associated facilities.[1][2]

The power station was commissioned in 1967 by the Hydro Electric Corporation (TAS) with a single Boving Kaplan-type turbine with a generating capacity of 41.8 megawatts (56,100 hp) of electricity.[3]

In 2015, the turbine was upgraded to a single Andritz Kaplan-type turbine with a generating capacity of 43.8 megawatts (58,700 hp) of electricity.[1]

Within the station building, the turbine has a five-bladed runner and concrete spiral casing. Pre-stressed cables passing through the stay vanes anchor the spiral casing and form part of the station foundation. No inlet valve is installed in the station. The station output, estimated to be 187 gigawatt-hours (670 TJ) annually, is fed to TasNetworks' transmission grid via parallel 11 kV/220 kV Siemens generator transformers to the outdoor switchyard.[1]

Water discharged from the Meadowbank Power Station flows into the River Derwent.[2]

2016 energy crisis

In 2016, the power station was the location of diesel generators required to supplement the power into the Tasmanian grid due to the 2016 Tasmanian energy crisis and the failure of the Basslink cable.[4]

See also

• List of power stations in Tasmania

References

1. "Meadowbank Power Station: Derwent Catchment" (PDF). Energy: Our power stations. Hydro Tasmania. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
2. "Derwent: Meadowbank Power Station". Energy. Hydro Tasmania. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
3. "Meadowbank Power Station: Technical fact sheet" (PDF). Energy: Our power stations. Hydro Tasmania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
4. "More diesel generators fired up to boost energy to Tasmania's power grid". ABC News. 31 March 2016.

External links

• Hydro Tasmania page on the Lower Derwent