Country Australia Purpose Power Opening date 1987 Height 122 m Catchment area 2,653 km² Owner Hydro Tasmania Spillway 1 | Location West Coast, Tasmania Status Operational Type of dam Embankment dam Length 374 m Create Lake Pieman Construction began 1974 | |
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The Reece Power Station is a conventional hydroelectric power station located in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia.
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Technical details
Part of the Pieman River scheme that comprises four hydroelectric power stations, the Reece Power Station is the final station in the scheme, before the water runs out to sea. The power station is located aboveground at the foot of the rock-filled concrete faced Reece Dam (also called the Lower Pieman Dam) which forms Lake Pieman. Water from the lake is fed to the power station into two independent 250-metre (820 ft)-long tunnels.
The power station was commissioned in 1986 and 1987 by the Hydro Electric Corporation (TAS) and the station has two Fuji Francis turbines, with a combined generating capacity of 238 megawatts (319,000 hp) of electricity. The station output, estimated to be 1,025 gigawatt-hours (3,690 TJ) annually, is fed to TasNetworks' transmission grid via a 13.8 kV/220 kV Fuji generator transformer to the outdoor switchyard.
Etymology
Both the power station and the dam are named in honour of Eric Reece, the Premier of Tasmania between 1958 and 1969 and again between 1972 and 1975. Reece was a firm proponent of the Hydro-Electric Commission and the development of hydroelectricity in Tasmania.