Renewable energy at Melbourne’s reservoirs

Mini hydro-electricity plants

Melbourne Water has completed the construction of six mini hydro-electricity plants at its various reservoirs.

Work on the final mini hydro plant has finished at the Silvan Reservoir and the six plants combined could produce enough clean, green energy to power the equivalent of about 5000 homes.

The other five mini hydros are operating at Preston, Notting Hill, Olinda and Mt View Reservoirs and at Upper Yarra Dam.

Paul Pretto, General Manager of Asset Planning, said the new plants would harness the power from the water supply system to produce up to 40,000 megawatt hours per year of renewable energy, with no greenhouse emissions.

“They will generate enough green power to offset more than 52,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, which is equivalent to taking about 13,000 cars off the road,” Dr Pretto said.

“Melbourne Water uses a vast amount of electricity to move water and sewage around the system and we feel that we have an implicit obligation to lower our greenhouse gas emissions and source our energy from renewable sources.”

The organisation has already succeeded in reducing its greenhouse emissions by 50% and has set an ambitious target of achieving zero emissions by 2018.

The construction of the mini hydros involved the installation of a small turbine alongside one of the water mains supplying the reservoirs.

The plants convert energy from water flows into the reservoirs into green electricity.

The six mini hydros will use the energy from the movement of water around the system to generate electricity that can be fed back into the power grid.