Without Snowy 2.0, a future National Electricity Market would be placed under “unprecedented stress” relying predominantly on short-term battery storage for grid stability.
This is the view of Baringa Partners, which completed independent modelling into Snowy 2.0 and its role in the energy transition, particularly when coal-fired power stations are eventually phased out.
Without long-duration storage such as pumped hydro, a reliance on battery storage would drive increases in wholesale electricity prices during periods of low wind and solar generation, Baringa found. Snowy 2.0, on the other hand, can generate continuously for a week, stabilising the energy system and suppressing average wholesale prices by $7095 per megawatt-hours.
Snowy Hydro chief executive officer Dennis Barnes said Baringa’s findings highlighted the importance of a diversified energy mix.
“Short-term batteries are the sprint-runners, vital for daily balancing, but only Snowy 2.0 can run the marathon,” he said.
“Batteries are the best value way of providing short-duration storage, but they cannot see the grid through the multi-day wind droughts that Australia has seen before and will inevitably see again.
“Without Snowy 2.0, grid resilience is heavily compromised, threatening continuous supply during prolonged lulls in wind and solar generation.”
Snowy 2.0 boasts 350 gigawatt-hours of storage capacity – the equivalent of 26 million home batteries. The asset, Barnes said, is a 150-year investment in Australia’s energy sovereignty.
“Like the original Snowy Scheme, which still underpins energy reliability more than 50 years after its construction, the pumped hydro expansion will be a national asset powering Australia for generations,” he said.
Snowy 2.0 has faced its challenges, experiencing significant cost escalations since its announcement in 2017. This has threatened its viability.
Despite this, the project continues to power ahead, with tunnel boring machine Lady Eileen Hudson last month completing the 6km tailrace tunnel connecting Talbingo Reservoir to the project’s underground power station complex.
Read the modelling here.
Subscribe to Pump Industry to discover all the latest industry news, technical articles and thought-leading content from Australia’s only dedicated pump magazine.
