The 2016 Tasmanian energy crisis was an ongoing energy storage situation in the state of Tasmania, Australia in 2016. Two years of high volumes of energy exported to Victoria via the Basslink HVDC cable, followed by low rainfall, and a fault which rendered the cable inoperable, resulted in record low storage levels in Tasmania's hydro-electric system. This resulted in a number of contingency plans to be enacted by Hydro Tasmania and the Hodgman Government.
Background
Tasmania's electricity generation is primarily hydro-electric, having been gradually developed since 1914. As a result, the state is highly dependent on rainfall for electricity generation. An energy shortage in the 1960s resulted in the construction of the oil-fired Bell Bay Power Station. However, this station was only used as a contingency - as of 2015, hydro-electricity continued to be the primary generation method. The state was self-reliant until 2005, when the Basslink HVDC interconnector to Victoria was completed. Basslink was intended to both provide energy security, in case of drought; and provide renewable energy to Victoria, which relies heavily on coal as a fuel source.
Tasmania's reliance on hydro-electricity was further increased by the decommissioning of the Bell Bay Power Station in 2009, and the mothballing of several units of its replacement, the gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station, including considering selling parts of the station. Conversely, this reliance was reduced in part by the expansion of the Woolnorth Wind Farm in 2007 and the construction of the Musselroe Wind Farm in 2013.
In July 2012, an Australian carbon pricing system came into effect, providing renewable electricity generators with a competitive advantage over greenhouse gas-emitting generators. The Abbott government had promised the repeal of the scheme in the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, in which they were successful. Anticipating that the carbon pricing scheme would be short-lived, Hydro Tasmania capitalised by increasing generation and running down storage levels over the period from July 2012 until the carbon price was repealed in July 2014. Hydro Tasmania's storage levels peaked around 62% in late 2012 before declining to 28% capacity on 1 July 2014. Whereas Hydro Tasmania's target minimum storage levels on 1 July each year was traditionally 30%, in September 2012 it lowered this target to 25%.
Hydro Tasmania's storages did not recover significantly during the second half of 2014 or 2015, despite above average inflows from May to August 2015. Storage levels began dropping sharply from September 2015 due to extremely low inflows; October inflows were just 7% of the long-term average for that month.
Basslink outage
On 22 December 2015, Basslink announced that the HVDC cable had experienced a fault two days earlier (20 December) and was unable to transmit electricity in either direction. The location of the fault was identified as approximately off the coast of Tasmania. Basslink informed the Australian Energy Market Operator that the interconnector would experience an outage of up to 60 days.
To diagnose the fault, Basslink contracted a range of specialist companies, including cable joiners from Italy and the submarine cable laying ship, Ile De Re. The ship, which typically services communications cables, underwent modifications in the port of Geelong to suit HVDC cables. The problem continued into February 2016, and is considered to be an expensive problem to fix.
On 8 March 2016, Basslink announced they intended to cut the cable within a week and have the cable back in service by late May, with the cable actually being cut on the 11th.
At the end of March 2016, the fault had been identified, and the recovery date for Basslink had been put back to mid June 2016
By the second last week of April 2016, the first stage of the repair was reported as complete Power through the cable was restored on 13 June 2016. After 9 days a separate non-cable fault caused another failure of power flow on 22 June. After almost 36 hours power flow was again restored in the evening of 23 June 2016.
Response
Actions taken to minimise the consumption of water from Hydro Tasmania's storages included: Recommissioning of the gas-fired Tamar Valley Power Station Striking agreements with three major industrial customers - Tamar Valley smelters Bell Bay and TEMCO, and Norske Skog's papermill at Boyer - to reduce their load by a combined 180 MW Deploying up to 200 MW of portable diesel generators Bringing Hydro Tasmania's cloud seeding program, usually scheduled to start in May each year, forward by a month