The Meadowbank Dam is a buttress dam, with a concrete-faced embankment, across the Lower River Derwent, located in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania, Australia. Completed in 1966 and owned and operated by Hydro Tasmania, the resultant reservoir was established for the purpose of generation of hydroelectricity via the Meadowbank Power Station, a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power station.
Dam overview Completed by the Hydro Electric Corporation (TAS) in 1966, the buttress dam wall is high and long; and on its right hand side, the structure has a concrete-faced embankment, both built on a rock foundation. When full, the reservoir has capacity of and covers , drawn from a catchment area of . The controlled spillway has a flow capacity of .
Hydroelectric power station Part of the Derwent scheme that comprises eleven hydroelectric power stations, the Meadowbank Power Station is the final power station in the scheme. The aboveground power station is located near the dam wall. 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.
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 of electricity. In 2015, the turbine was upgraded to a single Andritz Kaplan-type turbine with a generating capacity of of electricity. 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 annually, is fed to TasNetworks' transmission grid via parallel 11 kV/220 kV Siemens generator transformers to the outdoor switchyard.
Water discharged from the Meadowbank Power Station flows into the River Derwent.
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.
See also
List of power stations in Tasmania List of reservoirs and dams in Tasmania List of run-of-the-river hydroelectric power stations
References
External links Hydro Tasmania page on the Lower Derwent