Snowy
Features
á The Snowy Mountains Scheme is located in
AustraliaÕs Southern Alps with a water catchment area of 5124 square
kilometres, mostly within Kosciuszko National Park.
á The Scheme has 145 km of interconnecting,
transmountain tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts that collect and divert most of
the inflows to the Snowy Mountains area.
á There are 16 major dams with a total
storage capacity of 7 000 (Gl), or 13 times the volume of Sydney Harbour.
Almost 76% of this capacity, or 5 300 Gl, can be used for electricity
generation and diverted to the Murray and Murrumbidgee Irrigation Systems.
á Lake Eucumbene, the SchemeÕs largest
reservoir, has a storage capacity of 4 798 Gl or
9
times the volume of Sydney Harbour.
á Entitlements to the water diverted from
the Snowy River by the Scheme are shared between Victoria and NSW at
approximately 25% and 75% respectively.
á By providing a reliable source of water
west of the Great Dividing Range, the Scheme assists in underwriting the
production of $3 billion of agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin
each year.
á The SchemeÕs operations are vital to
river management, including flood mitigation, flow augmentation during drought
and the control of salinity in the Murray River.
á The SchemeÕs seven power stations generate
an average of 4 500 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity each year, which is
approximately 7% of the total electricity consumption in NSW.
á With a large generating capacity of 3 756
megawatts (MW), the Scheme represents approximately 4% of the total electricity
generating capacity of southeast Australia.
á It provides approximately 70% of the renewable energy supplied to the eastern mainland
grid, displacing approximately 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
each year.
á More than 100 000 people from over 30
countries worked on the Snowy Scheme between 1949 and 1974 with the workforce
reaching a peak of 7 300 in 1959.