Work continues inside the transformer hall of the underground power station which is under construction at Lobs Hole in the Snowy Mountains. Equipment for the power station is being stored in Goulburn. Photo: Snowy 2.0.
Electricity generator Snowy Hydro is leasing a huge warehouse on Goulburn’s southern outskirts to store electrical and mechanical equipment for an underground power station.
The new leasing deal for the former Coles distribution centre, which closed in 2022, will create up to 30 jobs. Coles’ decision to consolidate its logistics operation in Sydney’s west saw more than 200 Goulburn people lose their jobs at the end of 2021.
Snowy Hydro is leasing the entire 48,000-sqm warehouse which stands on 16.25 hectares at Lillkar Road near the Run-O-Waters rural residential estate for the equipment being stored.
The equipment will be used for an underground power station now under construction at the remote Lobs Hole site in the Snowy Mountains. Snowy Hydro said in November the $12 billion project was 60 per cent completed and was on schedule to be finished at the end of 2028.
Any power station components being manufactured overseas will be transported to Australia and stored at Goulburn, rather than being held at an offshore port, risking future shipping delays.
A significant portion of the warehouse space is now temperature- and humidity-controlled to store sensitive electrical components.
The warehouse is leased for four years, with an option to extend.
Snowy 2.0 Project Director Dave Evans said the Goulburn warehouse was in the right place at the right time for the hydro-electricity project.
An aerial view of Lobs Hole, one of three main worksites for the Snowy 2.0 project. Electrical and mechanical equipment to be deployed at Lobs Hole is being stowed in the huge warehouse previously used as a Coles distribution centre in Goulburn. Photo: Snowy 2.0.
“Managing logistics is crucial for a project of this scale,” he said. “Storage space is very constrained on-site and this warehouse is large enough to hold thousands of shipping containers of equipment.
“The warehouse location on the highway about halfway between Port Kembla and the Snowy Mountains is ideal,” he said.
“We expect 20 to 30 people will work at the warehouse and up to half of these will be locals, so that’s a great outcome for the Goulburn community.”
The Snowy 2.0 project is a major pumped-hydro expansion of the existing Snowy Scheme. It will have a total generating capacity of 2200 megawatts from its six generating units and energy storage of 160 hours that will power about 3 million homes for a week.
International technology company Voith is in partnership with Snowy 2.0 and has previously announced it would connect the two existing dams of the Snowy Scheme, Tantangara Dam and Talbingo Dam, through underground tunnels and an underground power station with pumping and generating capacity. The underground powerhouse would house six reversible Francis-type pump turbines.
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