The Trawool Reservoir is in the Tallarook Ranges, 10 km southeast of Seymour. It was built in the 1890s to supply water to Seymour but has been redundant for many decades. The wall is of granite and is still in excellent condition. It is located 260 metres above the Goulburn River and about 2.3 km from it, and the juxtaposition of the two bodies of water makes an ideal situation for a pumped hydroelectric scheme. Using half the capacity of the reservoir the scheme could generate 6MW for six hours.
BACKGROUND
A pre-feasibility study funded by the Victorian Government was made by the Melbourne Energy Institute (University of Melbourne) in 2017 and found it to be financially viable, based on arbitrage (that is, to buy power when it is cheap to pump water from the river to the reservoir, and when there is high demand for power and it is expensive, to generate power by allowing the water to flow back down hill through a turbine). Nearly all parts of the project lie on Crown land. There is no environmental or planning impediment to it.
With the advent of variable solar and wind power generation the Federal Government is mandating storage under its Reliability Guarantee. In the developing future of distributed power sources it is appropriate that storage facilities be a number of smaller units also distributed.
INTEREST
The Victorian Government has determined that the Trawool reservoir is now owned by Goulburn Valley Water. GVW supports the project. The Intelligent Water Network, which is a partnership of Victorian water corporations, VicWater and DELWP that investigates new technologies, has also supported it.
On the other side of the river the Cherry Tree wind farm is under construction. The developers, Infigen, is interested in looking at the potential of the project to “firm” the wind farm’s output.
NEXT STEPS
To progress further a full feasibility study with detailed design and costing is required.
BACKGROUND
A pre-feasibility study funded by the Victorian Government was made by the Melbourne Energy Institute (University of Melbourne) in 2017 and found it to be financially viable, based on arbitrage (that is, to buy power when it is cheap to pump water from the river to the reservoir, and when there is high demand for power and it is expensive, to generate power by allowing the water to flow back down hill through a turbine). Nearly all parts of the project lie on Crown land. There is no environmental or planning impediment to it.
With the advent of variable solar and wind power generation the Federal Government is mandating storage under its Reliability Guarantee. In the developing future of distributed power sources it is appropriate that storage facilities be a number of smaller units also distributed.
INTEREST
The Victorian Government has determined that the Trawool reservoir is now owned by Goulburn Valley Water. GVW supports the project. The Intelligent Water Network, which is a partnership of Victorian water corporations, VicWater and DELWP that investigates new technologies, has also supported it.
On the other side of the river the Cherry Tree wind farm is under construction. The developers, Infigen, is interested in looking at the potential of the project to “firm” the wind farm’s output.
NEXT STEPS
To progress further a full feasibility study with detailed design and costing is required.