Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme, Victoria
The Kiewa Hydroelectric Scheme is the largest hydro-electric scheme in Victoria and the second largest in mainland Australia after the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The scheme is situated in the Australian Alps in north-eastern Victoria about 350 km from Melbourne and is wholly owned by AGL Energy.
The scheme was originally constructed between 1938 and 1961 by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria although it was privatised in the 1990s. The scheme was originally developed solely for electricity generation, unlike the Snowy Mountains Scheme, which was also intended to direct water west of the Snowy Mountains for purposes of irrigation.
Hydroelectric power generation in the Mount Bogong - Feathertop - Hotham area was first proposed by a private company known as the Victorian Hydro-Electric Company (VHEC), established in 1911. The Kiewa River was the most desirable location for power generation.
In 1918 the Electricity Commissioners (later the State Electricity Commission of Victoria) was formed, and given a brief to investigate an alternate power generation scheme to the burning of brown coal from the Latrobe Valley. In 1919 the Commissioners opposed the VHEC being allowed to generate power in the Upper Kiewa, but a Victorian Government found that the Kiewa scheme would produce 30 megawatts of power at a capital cost of $8 million. While the hydroelectricity was cheaper than burning brown coal, and would provide more energy than Melbourne then required, it was at a capital cost twice as much.
The SECV was formed on 10 January 1921, and allocated $2.86 million for power generation works at Yallourn. The SECV bought out the VHEC soon after, and in 1923 a series of technical investigations was undertaken into characteristics of rain and snowfall in the Australian Alps. It was found that local snow was more dense and soggier than that in Europe, and formed weighty blocks, but no further works were carried out by the SECV.
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