The Shoalhaven Scheme is a dual-purpose

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...

and

Pumped-storage Hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing (electrical power), load balancing. A PSH system stores energy i ...

scheme located on the South Coast region of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The Scheme was built as a joint project between the Electricity Commission of NSW and the NSW Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board. Management has subsequently passed to

Origin Energy Origin Energy Ltd is an ASX listed public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a major integrated electricity generator, and electricity and natural gas retailer. It operates Eraring Power Station, Australia's largest coal-fired power ...

and the

Sydney Catchment Authority The Sydney Catchment Authority was a statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales created in 1999 to manage and protect drinking water catchments and catchment infrastructure, and supplies bulk water to its customers, including Sydn ...

Water supply

Water in the scheme is stored in three principal

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s and their associated

reservoirs A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrup ...

Tallowa Dam Tallowa Dam, completed in 1976, is a concrete gravity dam with central overflow spillway, located on the Shoalhaven River, downstream from the river's confluence with the Kangaroo River. The dam wall of is high and in length. At 100% capacity ...

, Fitzroy Falls Dam and Wingecarribee Dam.

Wingecarribee River The Wingecarribee River ( Aboriginal Dharawal: ''Winge Karrabee''), a perennial river that is part of the Hawkesbury– Nepean catchment, is located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Wingec ...

is a tributary of

Warragamba River The Warragamba River, a river that is part of the Hawkesbury- Nepean catchment, is located in the Macarthur region of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Formed through the confluence of the Coxs River and two minor tributaries, W ...

, so water pumped into Wingecarribee Reservoir can be released into

Warragamba Dam Warragamba Dam is a heritage-listed dam in the outer South Western Sydney suburb of Warragamba, Wollondilly Shire in New South Wales, Australia. It is a concrete gravity dam, which creates Lake Burragorang, the primary reservoir for water supp ...

and hence the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

water supply. Water can also be released into

Nepean Dam The Nepean Dam is a heritage-listed dam split across Avon in the Wingecarribee Shire and Bargo in the Wollondilly Shire, both in New South Wales, Australia. The reservoir created by the dam spreads across Avon, Bargo and also Yerrinbool, New So ...

via a system of rock cuttings and tunnels known as Glenquarry Cut. Water from the Nepean Dam can be transferred to Sydney, or to

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

via

Avon Dam The Avon Dam is a heritage-listed dam at Avon, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands, Australia. It is one of four dams and weirs in the catchment of the Upper Nepean Scheme, providing water to the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wo ...

Power generation

In addition to its water supply capabilities which supplements water supplies to the

area, the Shoalhaven Scheme also comprises two hydro-power facilities, with total generating capacity of . The flexibility of the scheme is that it can operate as either a pump or a generator. During off peak periods, it utilises excess electricity from the

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Space partitioning * Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs ** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...

to pump water back up to the reservoir(s) as

pumped storage Pumping may refer to: * The operation of a pump, for moving a liquid from one location to another **The use of a breast pump A breast pump is a mechanical device that Lactation, lactating women use to milking, extract milk from their breasts. They ...

. The two power stations are: The Kangaroo Valley and Bendeela power stations were completed in 1977 as a joint project between the

Electricity Commission of New South Wales The Electricity Commission of New South Wales, sometimes called Elcom, was a statutory authority responsible for electricity generation and its bulk transmission throughout New South Wales, Australia. The commission was established on 22 May 1950 ...

and the NSW Metropolitan Water Sewerage and Drainage Board. Management has subsequently been passed from those bodies to

and the

Kangaroo Valley Power Station

Kangaroo Valley Power Station in the

Kangaroo Valley Kangaroo Valley is a river valley along the Kangaroo River (Shoalhaven), Kangaroo River in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales, Australia, located west of the seaside in the City of Shoalhaven. It is also the name of the small suburb withi ...

has two pump turbines, for a total electricity generating capacity of . From Bendeela Pondage, the Kangaroo Valley Pumping and Power Station lifts water a further to Fitzroy Falls Reservoir via a tunnel, shaft, pipeline, and canal. Water available for hydro-electric power generation is discharged back down the conduits, driving turbines as it returns to Bendeela Pondage and then Lake Yarrunga.

Bendeela Pondage

Bendeela Pondage, completed in 1972, is an earth and rockfill embankment dam structure located above the Bendeela Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Station on the

Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven River is a perennial stream, perennial river that rises from the Southern Tablelands and flows into an open mature wind wave, wave dominated estuary#Lagoon-type or bar-built, barrier estuary near Nowra on the South Coast, New Sou ...

/ Kangaroo River which both go into the

and the Kangaroo Valley Hydroelectric Pumped Storage Power Station. It's a small storage buffer dam for between the two Pumped-storage Hydroelectric Power Station's.

Bendeela Power Station

Bendeela Power Station has two pump turbines, for a total of of electricity generating capacity. Bendeela Pumping and Power Station, located on the Kangaroo River arm of Lake Yarrunga, lifts water to Bendeela Pondage.

Environmental consequences

The Shoalhaven River and its main tributary the Kangaroo River. Tallowa Dam has been a barrier to migratory native fish with estuarine/marine juvenile stages, blocking species including

Australian bass The Australian bass (''Percalates novemaculeata'') is a small-to-medium-sized species of primarily freshwater (but estuarine spawning) ray-finned fish found in coastal rivers and streams along the east coast of Australia. A member of the genu ...

from more than 80% of their former range in the Shoalhaven system. Stockings of hatchery bred bass in Lake Yarrunga has been an attempt to remediate the situation. A fishway for Tallowa Dam has been discussed for more than 20 years but was not constructed until 2009. Lake Yarrunga also contains exotic species such as

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, which are now present in high densities. A

fish lift A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon, is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as mov ...

began operation in August 2009.

References

{{WaterNSW , state=autocollapse Geography of Sydney Hydroelectric power stations in New South Wales Shoalhaven River