Hydro Tasmania dam safety surveillance and monitoring program

Client: Hydro Tasmania
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Date: July 2013 – June 2014

Helping Australia’s largest renewable energy producer and water manager meet its ANCOLD and regulatory requirements.

Background

Hydro Tasmania owns an extensive instrumentation and monitoring network for the provision of civil and dam asset surveillance.

The data acquired via this network, and its analysis, are crucial to fulfil Hydro Tasmania’s operational mandate and duty of care. Together with routine visual inspection, this monitoring activity forms a front line of defence and a pragmatic approach to dam surveillance to meet the requirements of ANCOLD Guidelines on Dam Safety Management and the Tasmanian Government Water Management (Safety of Dams) Regulations 2003 (under the Water Management Act 1999).

Hydro Tasmania's instrumented civil and dam portfolio contains assets which are critical to operations while others are critical to public safety. The level of service required varies according to combined criticality.

Solution

Entura was responsible for installation, repair, operation, maintenance and calibration for the field monitoring sites within Hydro Tasmania’s geotechnical network. This included all data loggers, sensors, telemetry, power supplies and related ancillary equipment.

Entura was also responsible for verifying daily that each individual site was operational and successfully delivering data into the client database, and for a faults database to ensure that civil and dam safety representatives were alerted to all faults and fault fixes.

Outcome

Throughout the project, Entura worked closely with the Hydro Tasmania to operate and maintain its geotechnical network and sites in a cost-effective manner, meeting all requirements and appropriate quality standards.

As a result, data from all monitoring network sites was retrieved timely and effectively and all faults were fixed within the required timeframes.

Hydro Tasmania was able to meet its ANCOLD and regulatory requirements, better quantify and manage dam safety risks, which enabled improved operations, and ensure a fast and informed response in the event of a civil or dam safety emergency.