In 1999 numerous events took place to celebrate the 50th or Golden Anniversary of the construction and operation of the "Snowy Mountain Scheme".

One such event was organised by the Canberra Group of the AIE when at a dinner meeting held at the Red Belly Black Restaurant, Mt Stromlo Observatory, the guest speaker was Mr Vin Good.

Mr Good was with the scheme for 19 years, was commissioner for 18 months and at the time of his address to the Institute Members and guests was an Associate Commissioner.
 

The potted history of the Scheme is:

Construction started when the first blasting shot was fired near Adaminaby in 1949, it was Ben Chiftley's "NewDeal" . it took 25 years to construct, involved 100,000 men and women, from 30 countries , including many engineers. technical officers, trades and non-trades people from around the world. They built 16 large dams, 7 power stations, a pumping station, 225 kms of tunnels and aqueducts in some of the harshest country in Australia. Built Blowering Dam and paid for half $19 million of the Hume Weir extension.

With a yearly average of 2360 G litres and a minimum of 2088 G litres the scheme provides irrigation water west of the Great Dividing Range,. paid for by generation of electricity. The scheme comprises 31 generators with a capacity of 3756MW (15% SE-Grid). However, its output is water constrained (5% of SE-Grid before environmental flows).

The Authority's first Commissioner. William Hudson, later Sir William, a renowned engineer, was known as the father of the Scheme. His vision, leadership. people and project management skills were outstanding -and his Public Affairs skills in marketing the Scheme to the Australian people, cut off any chance the politicans might have had of stopping, or limiting, construction when Government changed from Chifley to Menzies.

Commissioner Hudson was aware of opposition to the Scheme by taxpayers, particularly those away from the South East. Recognising Australians were now going on holidays in the family car, he developed escorted car tours around the Scheme to develop a sense of ownership. Tour operators convinced parents that their children's education was incomplete without a school or family tour.

The direction and assistance of the US Bureau of Reclamation was essential to construction of the Scheme - The US BR wanted to build the Scheme - but Menzies wanted the technology transfer to Australia. So the US BR prepared designs and specifications for some of the civil engineering works and provided training facilities on large projects in the USA for Authority engineers and technical officers. Over a decade, some 100 engineers were placed in the US for assignments up to a year- Early contracts were undertaken by American companies and Thiess was the first Australian contractor, but went on to become the biggest contractor on the Scheme with work valued at $108 million.

There were many achievements during construction of the Scheme:

The major achievement was the sheer vision, scope and size of the undertaking, the technology transfer and the success and excellence of the Scheme itself for both irrigation and electricity. Other achievements included:

Provision of drought protection to irrigators to cover the worst drought sequence previously recorded on either development.

From the first power station at Guthega a 60 MW capacity station, the ability to provide a level of security to the electricity grid that had not existed before. In the first year of its operation. Guthega, saved Sydney from blackout on 47 occasions. Rockbolting. a safer and cheaper alternative to concrete lining of tunnels, was developed at Snowy's Engineering laboratories. Until 50 years ago mine support had largely been by timbering. It was the work on the Snowy Mountains project on site investigation methodology and reinforcement of underground excavations in rock, led by Tom Lang's team, that opened up new horizons for the mining industry.

Power transmission. In 1951, the Snowy launched a study to find the most economical system for power transmission. The highest voltage in use in Australia at the time was 125kV However, the Snowy decided to install transmission lines of 330kV, which became the standard engineering excellence at work today. In the mid 1980s we realised what Snowy Mountains Electricity Commission (our sister company  were charging us for the bureau computing service they were providing to us so we moved to computerise the finance, maintenance management, purchasing and and human resource and other engineering systems at a cost of approximately $8M. With hindsight -we then realised SMEC's rates had been more than competitive, and it could be said that we had our first insight into why businesses consider outsourcing.
 
We then installed a Data Acquisition Control System, an Integrated Scheme Control Project is currently well underway, as are systems for operation a the NEM and for marketing Snowy products. These systems do not come
cheaply but they generally improve our competiveness position and assist decision making in the Scheme

 Introduction of computer technology into the business in the mid to late 80s was an essential element in the
efficiency cuts in manpower that had to be achieved achieved to remain competitive in the changing electricity industry. Personnel numbers fell from 900 to 350 over 9 years. Probably more cuts to come.

We undertook a $50M ' Refurbishment  Program at Tumut 1 and 2 Power Stations a the early 1990s. We refurbished the Generators and Turbines but did not install new runners. Economics/over supplied systems

 Current refurbishment program at Murray 1 and 2 Power Stations valued at $20M.  Re-wedge generators,. general
 overhaul of turbines and auxiliaries so as to maximise stator winding life, improve reliability and minimise  life cycle costs.

Schcheme was recognised as an International Historical Civil Engineering landmark in 1997. The Scheme's status is now in the company of the Eiffel Tower, the Panama Canal and our own Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Scheme's Maintenance Re-engineering program was the 1998 winner of the IEAust National Maintenance engineering Excellence Award alongside Hazelwood Power Station.

Moving on to the 50th Anniversary. The Scheme's contribution and achievements have been acknowledged this year (1999), as it celebrated its 50th Anniversary. We had a successful media launch, Australia Day Event, the Tour de Snowy, the Institution of Engineers Australia's 1999 NEF, the ANCOLD Conference and the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Symposium, all in the Snowy Mountains Region as well as having two Snowy Coins minted and released by the Royal Australian Mint and a Stamp Set released by Australia Post, for the 50th.,

Over 100.000 workers were invited to come back. This brought people to the Scheme throughout 1999 and in addition the Scheme was taken to the people of Australia through a number of events.

These anniversary activities reflected on the hardships, isolation remarkable personal courage, personal tragedy, and human stories of the Scheme workforce. As the memorial in Cooma reminds us - there were many lives lost (121) and from what I have seen and heard, working on the Scheme was like a war time experience. It changed people's whole future life.

OTHER EVENTS UNDERTAKEN FOR
THE 50TH
Launch of 50th Anniversary travelling photographic exhibition and commemorative book, "AVision for Australia" in Canberra by the Governor General on 7 July 1999, now in Melbourne.

Launched the Interpretive Exhibition at Power House Museum. Sydney in September 1999.

Held the Anniversary Festival, Snowy Mountains Region 8-24 October 1999. Avenue of Flags 16 Oct, Adaminaby Races 16 Oct, Black Tie PM's Dinner in T2 Power Station 16 Oct 1999 and the Reunion Picnic at Lake Jindabyne on 17 October 1999.

THE FUTURE

 The future challenge is for the Authority and Snowy Hydro Trading Pty Ltd to corporatise. integrate and establish the Scheme as a major player in the National Electricity Market. This will provide appropriate business drivers ( profit focus instead of cost focus) and thereby facilitate culture change in the Scheme and influence outage management and maintenance practices to adapt to meet  requirements. Other issues - environmental flows, environmental management, operation in a National Park, corporatisation privatisation and risk management in the very competitive National Electricity Market.

 Environmental releases (SWI Outcomes), resource security rather than drought security, operate the Scheme by bidding from five locations rather than bid the Scheme as a whole. Compete with Hydro Electricity Commission
Tasmania in the provision of Ancillary services after the completion of BASS Link- We are not contracted for black start at this point in time. Establish a position within the emerging Water Market. possibly in dry years for payment for changes in the timing of releases for irrigators. Look to develop additional renewable energy sources of supply.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE SNOWY SCHEME

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is recognised as one of the great engineering feats of the world. It took 25 years to build and is one of the largest and most complex integrated water and hydro-electric power schemes in operation.

Built in the national interest with the support of the New South Wales, Victorian, South Australian and Commonwealth governments, the Scheme provides electricity to the south-eastern Australian grid and much needed drought security to Australia's dry inland.

Construction started on 17 October 1949, when the Governor General Sir William McKell, Prime Minister Ben Chiffley and the Scheme's first Commissioner, Sir William Hudson, fired the first blast at Adaminaby.

Built at a cost of $1 billion - including interest costs accrued during construction - the Scheme was completed on time and under budget in 1974.

The Snowy Mountains Scheme is located in Australia's Southern Alps within an area of 8,200 square kilometres, mostly within Kosciuszko National Park.
 
The Scheme has 145 km of interconnected trans-mountain tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts which collect and divert most of the inflows to the Snowy Mountains area.
 
There are 16 major dams with a total storage capacity of 7,000 gigalitres (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.
 
Lake Eucumbene, the Scheme's largest reservoir, has a storage capacity of 4,798 Gl or 9 times the volume of Sydney Harbour.
 
Entitlements for the water diverted from the Scheme are shared between Victoria (25%) and NSW (75%).
By providing a reliable supply of water west of the Great Dividing Range, the Scheme assists in underwriting the production of $8.5 billion of irrigated agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin each year.
The Scheme's operations are vital to river management, including flood mitigation, flow augmentation during drought and the control of salinity in the Murray River.
 
The Scheme's seven power stations generate an average of 5,100 gigawatt-hours of electricity each year, which is approximately 10% of the total energy consumption in NSW.
 
With a large generating capacity of 3,756 megawatts (MW), the Scheme represents approximately 16% of the generating capacity of south-east Australia.
 
It provides 82.5% of renewable energy supplied to the south-eastern Australian grid, displacing approximately 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
 
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.
 
The Snowy Mountains Scheme's intensive construction phase began shortly after Federal Parliament established the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority in July 1949. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority owns and manages the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

The Snowy Mountains Council, made up of representatives from NSW, Victoria and the Commonwealth, as well as representatives from the Authority, directs the operations and maintenance of the Snowy Mountains Scheme regarding water storage and release and electricity generation.
 
 

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