C O M PA N Y OVERVIEW
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:
Australian
INGENUITY Snowy Hydro Limited CEO Paul Broad discusses recent acquisitions, current upgrades, and reveals what the company has up its sleeve for the future. Written by: Robert Spence Produced by: Vince Kielty
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nowy Hydro Limited has a long and proud heritage as an Australian company. Growing from early beginnings as an electricity generator into a leading end-to-end energy provider, Snowy Hydro captures the essence of the innovative Aussie spirit. “Snowy Hydro was dreamed about back in the 1880s when they were trying to move water from the east of Australia to the very dry west. As a result, the inception of a massive hydropower system that has the capacity of generating 600 megawatts (MWs) was developed,” said Managing Director and CEO, Paul Broad. “Electricity generation was in the beginning a way to pay to move the water. But now, the scheme can generate 4100 MW of renewable electricity and Snowy Hydro has grown to be the leading provider of peak electricity in the NEM,” Broad said. Completed in 1974, the Snowy Scheme is one of the biggest engineering and construction projects undertaken in Australia, taking over 25 years to complete 4
Tumut 3 Power Station, SHL
with more than 100,000 people from over 30 countries working on the project. Today, its construction is an important symbol of Australia’s identity as an independent, multicultural and resourceful country. In 2014, Snowy Hydro began to emerge as a major player in the energy retail sector with almost one million retail account holders.
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At the same time, the company is embracing technology as a means to improve efficiency, reliability and connectivity across the company. I N T E G R AT E D E N E R G Y PROVIDER Simply put, Snowy Hydro Limited is an energy producer, supplier, trader and retailer for Australia. The company has 5500MW of
generating capacity across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, utilising the power of the Snowy Scheme, three gas-fired power stations and diesel peaking generators. Between the Scheme, 300MW Valley Power gas-fired power station, the 320MW Laverton North gas-fired power station and the recently acquired 667MW gasfired generator at Colongra in New w w w. s n o w y h y d ro . c o m . a u
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ASBESTOS REMOVAL & DEMOLITION ASBESTOS SAMPLING & TESTING DEMOLITION
Since 2008, AGH Demolition and Asbestos Removal Pty Ltd has worked with clients throughout Australia to provide innovative and economical solutions, specific to each project. Our qualified and highly experienced team will manage all aspects of your hazardous material project. AGH’s professionalism and focus on safety ensures that the client receives a high standard of remedial service.
02 6299 0323 admin@agh.com.au www.agh.com.au
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South Wales and diesel peaking generators in South Australia, Snowy offers a flexible and reliable mix of energy. “The key to our success is our ability to utilise the Snowy Scheme’s large, reliable and fast start capability to our advantage, whether it’s through spot generation, risk management for our wholesale customers, futures contracts or electricity and gas supply to households and commercial and industrial customers,” said Broad. The Snowy Scheme is comprised of 16 major dams, nine power
SUPPLIER PROFILE
stations (two underground), a pumping station and 145 kilometres of interconnected tunnels and pipelines and 80 kilometres of aqueducts. The company commenced a $68 million modernisation program in 2012 to improve efficiency and update infrastructure. This is in addition to continued investment in maintaining and improving the reliability and response time of assets. “The physical upgrades include smarter, more efficient runners on the turbine, which means we’re getting 10-15 per cent more
AGH
In relation to our association with Snowy Hydro we have undertaken a significant amount of asbestos removal work including the following: · Removal of asbestos contaminated phase barriers and the reinstatement of these · Removal of asbestos contaminated door seals, brake pads, friable mastics, insulating components within the Snowy Hydro plant · Environmental cleaning Some other projects AGH has been involved in include the following: · Asbestos removal and demolition of homes affected by Mr Fluffy insulation · Main contractor in an MBA Award Winning project – Guideline ACT (photo attached) · Ongoing projects at schools, hospitals, government departments and residential Website: www.agh.com.au
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We are an Australian based company with a highly skilled and qualified team that extends around the world, to the U.S., U.K., New Zealand and South America. Our specialist workforce in Large Rotating Machines in both the Mining and Power Generation industries enables us to offer extensive field services to clients large and small. Whether you need a turnkey solution or just a few extra staff, our services include consultation, project supervision, test and inspection, dry ice cleaning, full installations, rewinds and rewedges.
Winding Specialists Working Globally
AUSTRALIAN WINDERS 5 Muros Place, Midvale, WA 6056 Phone: +61 8 9274 8652 Fax: +61 8 6296 7687 Email: info@australianwinders.com.au
www.australianwinders.com.au
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output. The turbines are running far more efficiently and that’s added enormously to our value,” said Broad. “Secondly, we’ve integrated these machines with a centralised control room. In the past, all these plants were run individually and now they’re centralised so we can dispatch electricity faster and more efficiently and make this work seamlessly across the whole suite of generation assets we have.” NEW MARKETS Recent acquisitions have also allowed Snowy Hydro to bolster
SUPPLIER PROFILE
its energy retail business. The company has invested almost one billion dollars in acquisitions in recent years to grow its customer base and expand generation assets, including acquiring energy retail company Lumo Energy in late 2014 and integrating it with its successful Red Energy business. The combination of Red and Lumo has helped Snowy Hydro nearly double the size of its retail business to almost one million customer accounts and become the fourth largest energy retailer in the NEM. “Red Energy has been part of our
AUSTRALIAN WINDERS
AUSTRALIAN WINDERS Pty Ltd is a company committed to providing top quality ’on site’ services to perform electric motor / generator winding and refurbishment to customers worldwide. Australian Winders has grown commercially, technically and developed full resources, to be in a position that enables them to compete with OEM and international companies in large machine repair and long term maintenance contracts. We have been successful in securing main contracts in turbine and hydro generator work this past year. Highlights being a major hydro generator outage to perform inspection, testing and repairs for Snowy Hydro Limited and a very successful partial discharge repair on turbine stator windings of a generator for GDF Suez. ‘With the capabilities we’ve pooled by incorporating highly experienced team members who have leading knowledge in services in this field– no company that supplies winding labour has ever been so well equipped to serve your business.’ Website: www.australianwinders.com.br
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BHA offers innovative survey services to suit the clients needs
• Epoch monitoring surveys of existing dams • Review of existing survey networks for stability • Detailed reports of methodology and results. • Analysis of surveyed deformation displacements including vectors and time based plots. • Survey of terminal structures for calibration of embedded instrumentation. • Update coordinates and grid datum to suit GNSS including conversion algorithms.
Tel: +61 2 4353 9644 Mob: 0412 432 561 Email: admin@surveyors.com.au
www.surveyors.com.au Member Association of Consulting Surveyors (Aust.)
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Guthega Dam, SHL
business for more than a decade. We are now working on integrating the two successful retail businesses into one extraordinary retail business, while remaining focused on superior customer service,” said Broad. According to Broad, Red and Lumo now offer both electricity and gas to customers in Victoria and New South Wales, while expanding the availability of gas to other markets, enabling a dual fuel
offering which attracts and retains more retail energy customers. “Our retail companies Red Energy and Lumo Energy pride themselves on customer service with energy backed by one of the great civil engineering wonders of the modern world—the Snowy Mountains Scheme.” ACE UP TH E S LEE V E Snowy Hydro continues to participate in emerging w w w. s n o w y h y d ro . c o m . a u
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SNOWY HYDRO LIMITED
Employees, SHL
ASBESTOS CONSULTANCY HAZARDOUS MATERIALS ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT & REMEDIATION LABORATORY SERVICES OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT RESPIRATOR FIT TESTING Contact John Directly: Mobile: 0412 087 298 Email: john@robsonenviro.com.au
technologies that will help challenge and disrupt the energy industry and they remain at the forefront of Australian innovation as the energy industry shifts towards consumerled generation, energy storage and use. “We embrace technology—it is at the heart of efficiencies for our company,” said Broad. A great example is Snowy’s trial of battery storage with Panasonic. The system is expected to help solar households double their rates of
As Managing Director of Robson Environmental for over 25 years, John Robson and his team of 20 professionals and technicians have been engaged as specialist consultants on local, national and international projects. The team at Robsons are widely recognised for providing expert, practical and cost effective advice supported by clear , accurate and concise documentation to government, , corporate and private sectors. As well as being a NATA technical assessor, John contributes to a number of entities that address workplace, environmental and asbestos safety. John is available to share his knowledge and expertise to help our clients find the right solution. Contact John today to discuss how Robson Environmental’s capabilities can meet your requirements.
www.robsonenviro.com.au
JOHN ROBSON B.Sc. Grad. Dip. Occ. Hyg. Cert.IV TAE
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Snowy Hydro SouthCare Rescue Helicopter
self-consumption from around 30 per cent to 60 per cent, by storing excess solar output during the day for use later, as well as provide a cost effective alternative to grid infrastructure investments. According to Broad, the 8kWh lithium-ion battery storage system, with an output of 2kW, has been designed specifically for the Australian market, which best suits solar arrays of around 5kW. “Battery storage is just part of where we think the modern energy world is headed. Panasonic is a great partner for us given the
technology and innovation they’re adopting in their own backyard. We think they’ll be a beautiful fit for us in the business we run for the foreseeable future,” said Broad. Along with innovative partnerships, Snowy intends to harness the power of smart metering technology as well. “Metering is going to become a bigger issue in Australia. Traditionally it’s been controlled by the network companies here, but that’s about to change in the next two years. We will be at the forefront of smart metering, establishing w w w. s n o w y h y d ro . c o m . a u
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Aerial view Colongra Power Station, SHL
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another point of contact with the household so we can provide multiple services with our system.” The true ace up Snowy Hydro’s sleeve is the introduction of high-tech unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) for inspection and the use of drones to inspect and report back on the state of assets. In the past, inspecting the many kilometres of tunnels was a massive operation, requiring the tunnels to be drained of water, essentially shutting down part of the Snowy Scheme and several power stations for up to a month. “We used these unmanned subs for the first time about 18 months ago. The technology has been around for a while but the new innovation is the sonic wave, which can give you forensic details of the structures in these tunnels. Now we can build maps of the tunnels and revisit them regularly to see any movements like rock caving that might indicate a problem sometime down the road,” said Broad. “This gives us phenomenally detailed information and the ability to build detailed models of the assets we have and really
Paul Broad CEO & Managing Director
Noel Cornish Chairman
“The technology has been around for a while but the new innovation is the sonic wave, which can give you forensic details of the structures in these tunnels.” – Paul Broad, CEO & Managing Director w w w. s n o w y h y d ro . c o m . a u
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Lake Eucumbene, SHL
understand the condition they’re in, including better understanding the capital investment we have to make to sustain them.” SHINING OPPORTUNITIES ON THE HORIZON
As a predominantly hydro company, Snowy is a leader in renewable energy and intends to compete with the likes of Tesla and others to 16
capture more of the solar market in Australia—an estimated 1.4 million households. Snowy currently services only 30,000 of those solar powered homes through its retail companies, but according to Broad, that’s merely the beginning. “We are entering the solar market very carefully because it’s a new frontier we haven’t extensively explored. Snowy doesn’t
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Company Information INDUSTRY
Utilities HEADQUARTERS
New South Wales, Australia FOUNDED
2002 EMPLOYEES
1700 PRODUCTS / SERVICES
Snowy Hydro is a producer, supplier, trader
necessarily have a comparative advantage yet,” said Broad. “But with our innovative battery technology trial and solar technology, we are formulating a very competitive product that we and the people of Australia can be proud of.” As a cornerstone of the Australian historical and energy landscape and an integral part of the communities in which they operate in, Snowy Hydro is taking things to new levels in 2016 and beyond.
and retailer of energy and is also a leading provider of risk management financial hedge contracts to the Australian National Electricity Market (NEM)
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PO Box 332, Cooma, New South Wales Australia, 2630 Tel: 61 +2-6453-2888 www.snowyhydro.com.au