On the 20th of December, I noted an announcement from CleanCo that their 66MW Barron Gorge Hydro Power Station suffered major damage due to flooding associated with Cyclone Jasper.
Late last week, CleanCo CEO Tom Metcalfe provided a radio interview with ABC Far North in which he explained that water levels during this flood were the highest recorded in the 60 years of the plant’s operations – with weir levels reaching above 12 metres.
The concrete spillway of the weir, which stands roughly 6 metres tall, remained intact after the flooding. It was the earthen embankment on the right side of the river that was damaged due to erosion from the flood waters – and will now need to be rebuilt in order for the water behind the weir to be controllable again.
He suggested that the station could be brought back at a reduced capacity initially, stating “we are looking at a way to potentially bring the station back on sooner in maybe a partial operation mode, maybe not at full capacity, maybe not for the full duration each day that we would normally run the station – that’s sort of a temporary solution”. In regards to a full return-to-service he stated, “at the moment we are looking at the end of June for full operation”. A full inspection and assessment of the damage is still ongoing and he was unable to provide an estimate of the repair costs at this stage.
As of this afternoon, the Barron Gorge units are still marked as offline until July 1st 2024 according to the latest MTPASA data published by the AEMO.
Source: ez2view’s Generator Outages widget
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