Fire at Tungatinah Hydro Power Station, on Wednesday 2nd September 2026

At approximately 9pm on Wednesday 2 September 2026 a fire broke out at Tasmania’s Tungatinah Power Station.

AEMO noted the event with a Market Notice (MN 144970) timestamped at 10:08pm:

Non-credible contingency event – TAS region – 02/09/2026

At 2100 hrs the Tungatina 110kV Substation tripped due to Fire on site.

AEMO did not instruct load shedding.

AEMO has been advised of the disconnection of bulk electrical load of approximately 2 MW.

The cause of this non credible contingency event has been identified.

AEMO will not reclassify this event as a credible contingency event.

Further advice will be provided.

Refer to the NOS for further details

The operator of the station, Hydro Tasmania, initially confirmed the report with a media release on Wednesday night and has now followed up with an update on Thursday morning (3 September), confirming the power station building itself has sustained significant damage, but that it was still too early to determine damage to the generating equipment.

“Unfortunately, from what we can see of the damage, we expect the power station to be out of service for an extended period of time”, the CEO of Hydro Tasmania said in the release.

A quick check of the MTPASA DUID availability data from the first forecast run Thursday morning shows at this stage the unit is indicated as being out for a year from today’s date, but our instinct is that this is probably a placeholder timeframe until the full extent of the damage can properly be assessed.

Other media mentions include:

• The ABC posted: Fire breaks out at Hydro Tasmania’s Tungatinah Power Station — including some photos of the damage and dramatic video footage of the blaze.
• On news.com.au: 300 people without power after massive fire tears through Tungatinah Power Station in Tasmania
• Pulse Tasmania: ‘Fully ablaze’: Fire tears through Tungatinah Power Station in Tasmania’s Central Highlands and Fire scene examiners move in as cause of Tungatinah Power Station blaze unknown