WATER TO GENERATE GREEN ENERGY

Water flowing from Warragamba Dam will be used to generate green energy through a new hydro-electric plant. The plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20,000 tonnes a year..

Water from Sydney’s iconic Warragamba Dam will be used to generate green energy, with a 30 tonne turbine installed at Prospect Reservoir, NSW Minister for Water, Phil Costa announced today. Minister Costa said the turbine is roughly the same weight as two Sydney buses and will convert flows ranging from 5,000 to 12,000 litres per second into electricity.

“This is an $18 million investment to use water flowing from the iconic Warragamba Dam to generate green energy – bringing Australia’s largest urban water supply dam into the 21st Century,” Mr Costa said.
“This new hydro-electric plant will generate around 20,000 megawatt hours of green energy a year, which is enough to power more than 1,500 average homes.
“The plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20,000 tonnes a year – the equivalent of taking 5,000 cars off the road.

“This green energy will be used to pump clean drinking water to around 600,000 Sydney residents.
“Excess power generated will go back into the grid.

“The Prospect Reservoir hydro-electric plant is the largest of Sydney Water’s renewable energy projects being constructed as part of a $60 million portfolio of projects across Greater Sydney.

“Sydney Water’s operations – the largest water utility in Australia – will be carbon neutral for energy and electricity use by 2020.

“Three new hydro-electric plants, along with new methane gas co-generation units at five sewage treatment plants will reduce the amount of power Sydney Water sources from the grid by 20 percent a year and save up to $2.5 million a year in electricity costs.”

THE HISTORY OF WARRAGAMBA DAM AND PROSPECT RESERVOIR

• Constructed between 1948 and 1960, Warragamba Dam is one of the largest domestic
water supply dams in the world.

• Prospect Reservoir was completed in 1888 to store water fed by gravity from the dams of
the Upper Nepean system, via the Upper Canal.

• Water has been transferred from Warragamba Dam to Prospect Reservoir since the
1940’s making Prospect Reservoir an integral part of the water supply system.

• Prospect Reservoir is now the backup to Sydney’s water supply from Warragamba and in
an emergency, capable of providing Sydney’s water supply for at least three weeks.