Legislative Council, Thursday 3 September 2026
Ms FORREST question to MINISTER for ENERGY and RENEWABLES, Mr DUIGAN
I note the media overnight and the Ministerial Statement talking about a tragic fire at the Tungatinah Power station, with Tungatinah Power Station being a significant power station in our system and note that Poatina and others are mostly out of action and under maintenance and repair.
In the minister’s Ministerial Statement that was provided to members he makes the point that Hydro Tasmania says they have sufficient generation network capacity available to maintain reliable energy across the state and notes that Hydro Tasmania storage is at the highest level seen in 10 years.
My question to the minister is: isn’t the amount of water in storages irrelevant if so much generation is offline? Aren’t we going to have to rely on gas more and more during this period ‑ because it is quite a bad fire by the look of the footage and the media reports on it ‑ to actually maintain the necessary energy supply in the state, let alone export when there may be high-price periods?
ANSWER
I assume all members are aware of overnight developments around 9 p.m. last night, the fire reported at Tungatinah. Having just recently spoken to the CEO of Hydro, who is up there at the moment, you can imagine it’s still a pretty live situation and circumstance.
I think we’re at a point where the fire is – as I understand it – fully extinguished and the site is likely to be transferred from Tasmania Fire Service back to Hydro in the relatively near future. There is quite a bit of loose cladding and stuff around the site. It’s a challenging environment.
I take the opportunity, obviously, to thank first responders who were there last night and, of course, over the course of the last 18 hours, also Hydro staff and TasNetworks staff. There are still 300 people in that area who are without power. We’re hopeful, as I understand it, the switchyard at this stage looks largely untouched, so there is the expectation that those 300 people will be back online in the not-too-distant future. I would ask them to bear with us and thank them for their patience.
In terms of what it means, it’s one of our mid-range power stations. Tungatinah has a capacity of 142 kilowatts. It is offline and will be offline for some period of time. Again, we’re waiting to see what the impact is. Certainly, the building is destroyed. Whether that is the same for the machinery which was contained within the building is yet to be determined. I’m advised by Hydro Tasmania that its power stations are insured and there will be a call on insurance in due course if that’s the way we need to go.
In terms of Poatina, which the member mentioned, I am advised that Poatina will be back online early October, so that’s helpful. I’m advised that the Tamar Valley Gas Power Station, which hasn’t been running for the last little bit, will be fired up again today. That’s probably in train. It takes a little while to get that up and going but we have some resilience in the system. We have a portfolio of generating assets – 30 power stations in the system – and it’s not unusual for one or other to be offline at various times for maintenance and so on. So, this is not a circumstance which is entirely unusual, in terms of a station going offline. Obviously, one burning is very unusual, but I’m advised that systems security is not an issue; that we have the generating assets and the water is storage that powers those generating assets to deliver power for Tasmanians, be they mums and dads at home or our major industrial customers. But, this is a big day for Hydro and in many ways a sad day because a lot of these stations are old. That one’s more than 70 years old and there are lots of people and families who have had interactions with it and memories of working at Tungatinah. So, it’s not a great day, but we will rebuild.