Snowy Hydro between a rock and a hard place after tunnel borer gets stuck
The $12bn Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has hit another stumbling block, with excavation work grinding to a halt after tunnel boring machine Florence became stuck in hard rock.
The $12bn Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has hit another stumbling block, with excavation work grinding to a halt after tunnel boring machine Florence became stuck in hard rock.
It’s the latest setback for Florence, which has been inching forward at a slower rate than hoped after being bogged in soft ground for most of last year.
The federal government-owned Snowy Hydro would not comment on whether the latest issues would cause a material delay to project timelines, but in a statement said excavation work had been grounded since May 16, because of “rock pinching on the machine’s shield”.
“The Snowy 2.0 project team sought immediate advice from a specialist contractor with experience at other Australian projects with the same TBM situation,” the company said. “Today the contractor commenced work using high pressure water jets to remove the rock impinging on TBM Florence’s shield.
“Timing for estimated recommencement of excavation will be determined on the successful removal of the rock.”
Snowy Hydro said it would give further updates next week.
Florence has been making slow progress in recent weeks as it cut through hard rock at the Tantangara site, one of several drilling locations in Kosciuszko National Park.
It’s been progressing less than 10m a day, shy of the 13m-a-day average pace that Snowy Hydro earlier this year said was needed for the project to reach its scheduled completion date in 2027.
Snowy Hydro 2.0 shapes as a critical piece of Australia’s energy transition, but the 2000-megawatt expansion of the pumped-hydro storage project in NSW has been beset by problems that have forced prolonged delays and the taxpayer bill to balloon.
The project involves building an underground hydropower station in the heart of Kosciuszko National Park, with tunnels linking Tantangara Dam high up in the mountains to Talbingo Reservoir lower down.
Florence is boring the longest and most technically difficult section of the project – the “headrace” tunnel linking the upper Tantangara dam to the underground power station.
The machine got bogged in soft ground in December 2022, and barely moved for close to a year until it restarted work following new environmental approvals secured from the NSW government.
The unexpected geological issues stoked alarm that the project might not be completed as scheduled by late 2027 – a timetable that Snowy Hydro has insisted it was on course to meet despite being mired by delays and cost blowouts.
It was revealed in last week’s federal budget that the government would spend $7.1bn over the next four years to develop the project.
The project was initially expected to cost $2bn and be completed in 2021 before being quickly revised to $6bn.
Snowy in 2023 said it would now cost $12bn, a figure the development’s chief executive Dennis Barnes is confident will be met.
Earlier this year it was forecast Snowy 2.0 would be fully operational in late 2028, delivering its first power in late 2027.
Australia is increasingly reliant on the development of the renewable project as a string of coal generators are forced into retirement at the end of their lifespans.
China’s DeepSeek kicks off AI arms race
The US and China are now in a global AI race. The revolution is coming a lot faster than many executives have anticipated.
Falling rates to send stocks ‘meaningfully higher’
Fund manager Jun Bei Liu says dropping interest rates will help boost the sharemarket this year, with sectors such as property and consumer stocks to benefit.