Operations & maintenance |


Managing lakes for multiple uses


Hydro Tasmania was proud to recently support the 2022 National Canoe Slalom Championships at Bradys Lake in Australia. The country’s largest water manager says that balancing energy generation requirements with providing water releases to help the local community is all in a day’s work


chosen by the International Canoe Federation as one of the Top 100 places to paddle in the world. This year it attracted more than 100 of the country’s


top athletes and was a national selection race with competitors vying for a chance to represent their country. For the event, Hydro Tasmania released 18m3


/


sec of water, or 18 tonnes per second, through the course for the duration of the three-day competition on the course. The course runs between two bodies of water,


Above: Schematic to show the Derwent hydropower scheme. Construction began in 1934 and the last power station was commissioned in 1968. The upper section of the scheme uses larger, deeper lakes for water storage than the lower section, and is formed from the Nive River system in the east and the Derwent River system in the west. The lower section is run-of-river. There are six power stations in the lower section, and they use water from the Derwent River multiple times


HYDRO TASMANIA IS AUSTRALIA’S largest water manager. It manages a complex hydropower system to generate renewable energy and balances this with providing paddlers, rowers and anglers access to the lakes, rivers and lagoons they enjoy for a variety of recreational uses. Providing water releases is part of Hydro Tasmania’s contribution to the Tasmanian community. The company says it receives requests for many different recreational purposes. For those interested in using the water and needing it to be at a certain level or flow, Hydro Tasmania will try to help them while balancing that with energy generation requirements. One of the largest recreational events Hydro


Tasmania supports is the National Canoe Slalom Championships. The 2022 event was recently held at Bradys Lake in Tasmania’s Central Highlands from 22-24 April. Established in 1970, Bradys Slalom Course is an internationally recognised white-water site and an integral part of Australia’s slalom landscape. It is managed by the Derwent Canoe Club in conjunction with Hydro Tasmania and is used as a training course for national teams, having hosted several national and international competitions. The course was recently


Left, top: Hydro Tasmania says providing water releases is part of its contribution to the Tasmanian community. Bradys Lake Slalom Course is an internationally recognised white-water site and an integral part of Australia’s slalom landscape


Left, bottom: More than 100 of Australia’s top athletes competed at the 2022 National Canoe Slalom Championships at Bradys Lake during April


26 | June 2022 | www.waterpowermagazine.com


Bronte Lagoon and Bradys Lake, which are part of the chain of lakes created to supply Tungatinah Power Station in the Central Highlands. Bradys’ course is a connector canal with gates that control the amount of flow between the two storages. The gates can’t be opened remotely so events like the slalom championships involve an extra level of coordination with staff on site and generation controllers based in Hydro Tasmania’s generation control centre in Hobart. Acting CEO, Ian Brooksbank, said Hydro Tasmania


takes great pride in supporting events like this which enrich the lives of Tasmanians and generate excitement and interest in the community. “While providing clean secure energy is Hydro


Tasmania’s first priority, we have always supported recreational users such as paddlers, rafters, rowers or anglers who want to make use of the water we manage.


“Bradys has canal gates that can’t be opened


remotely. Our generation controller in Hobart works with field staff who open and close Woodward’s Gate at the top of the course for each release. A lot of planning goes into this. “This is the country’s top natural channel slalom course and one of the few in the world where a water authority works this closely with a community canoeing club,” Brooksbank said. ●


Derwent hydropower Bradys Lake is the first of three lakes in the Tungatinah Lakes water body which also includes Lake Binney and Tungatinah Lagoon. These along with Bronte Lagoon form the headwater storages for the 142MW Tungatinah Power Station, which is part of the Derwent hydropower scheme. Bradys Lake is impounded by a 20m high and 800m long earth and rockfill dam, constructed between 1949 and 1953.


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