On 13 December, the ATS NSW Chapter hosted the highly successful panel discussion: Tunnels and Underground Works for Pumped Storage Hydropower Projects: Challenges and Opportunities.

Attended by an enthusiastic crowd of 50 in-person attendees, plus 100 people online (via Teams), organisers described the atmosphere as ‘energised’ as the participants, largely tunnellers and consultants, sought a better understanding of the broader hydropower market and emerging hydro opportunities across Australia.

The four speakers and host were selected for their industry expertise and are all deeply embedded in the next generation of hydropower development projects, each able to provide a unique viewpoint across the project development lifecycle.

They included Sabrina Kost, Managing Director of Pini; Hamid Alaedini, Associate Tunnelling at Aurecon; Helen Barbour-Bourne, Hydropower Sub Sector Market Lead at GHD; and Jeremy Kent-Johnston, Managing Director of Australian Hydropower (AusHydro). The panel was facilitated by skilled moderator Jonathan Carroll, Senior Project Manager – Dams and Hydropower, SMEC.

The panellists each provided a preface before sitting down for a Q&A from the host and from the floor. The preface included an overview of the specific components of a hydropower project; elements of hydropower projects and why they are more than just tunnelling projects; and a discussion of the market context of energy and hydropower.

“The quality of the speakers was excellent. A particularly interesting discussion point regarded the affordability of hydropower schemes, and the unique approach to operational safety cases in the Australian context,” says Keith Bannerman from the ATS NSW Chapter.

“There was a great discussion, noting the final investment decision is a critical milestone for these projects in their development lifecycle. This insight helped the audience better understand some of the key differences in client drivers compared to the recent urban transport infrastructure boom, which has been largely government funded in Sydney over the last 10 years.”

Keith said he was also interested to learn that the Australian Energy Market Operator Integrated System Plan (2022) identified 40GW of storage solutions will be needed by 2040, with 10GW of this needing to be medium (4-12 hrs) and long duration storage, with pumped hydro identified as a technology to meet this need.

“I was interested to hear that Queensland own a significant amount of their energy transmission and distribution and are looking to develop some of their new assets through government entities (Queensland Hydro). Whilst the New South Wales market has a push towards privatisation and increased investment in renewables with five declared Renewable Energy Zones – wind, solar and pumped hydro,” Keith continues.

With a significant pipeline of hydropower projects in Australia currently, the importance of this type of event, and its ability to help spread the word to industry professionals, will only get more important over time.

“This pipeline will stretch the existing capacity of hydropower professionals so the ATS, and its members and sponsors, along with associated trades and blue collar labour force, will need to pivot from the urban transport projects to regional renewables,” explains Phil Clark, Chair of the NSW ATS Committee.

“This overview presentation provided an exceptional introduction for those looking to understand the hydropower landscape and the trends likely to occur in 2024 and beyond.”

The NSW committee are already planning a series of fascinating events for 2024, including technical sessions on transport projects under construction or recently completed. Of great interest to many people in NSW (and further afield) will be a discussion about the newly opened Rozelle Interchange session planned for February 2023, Sydney Metro in mid-2023 and a focused symposium on the broader WestConnex program of works, identifying lessons learned across this expansive project.

You can view the presentation in full here: https://www.ats.org.au/resources/webinars 

Huge thanks to all four of our panelists, our fantastic moderator and our invaluable sponsors, without whom events like this would not be possible: Aurecon, Pini, SMEC and GHD. The event put an exclamation mark on 2023 and gave a great look ahead as to where the industry is heading in 2024 and beyond!