Construction and engineering company
Clough, a wholly owned subsidiary of South African engineering company
Murray & Roberts – and part of the Clough Salini Impregilo Joint
Venture (JV) – has been selected as the preferred tenderer for the multibillion
Australian dollar civil works for the Australian hydro project Snowy
2.0.
The JV, known as Future Generation, tendered on the
civil works for the Snowy 2.0 project which is
estimated to be worth A$4-billion.
Snowy 2.0 will link two existing Snowy Scheme dams,
the upper Tantangara and lower Talbingo, through underground tunnels to
depths of up to one kilometre and construct an underground power station
with pumping capabilities.
Hydropower will be
generated by falling water spinning Snowy 2.0’s
giant reversible turbines, which can
pump water in the opposite
direction. Snowy 2.0’s pumping capabilities work in a ‘closed’ system – water is
recycled so that the same water can be used to
generate power more than once, making the
most of available water.
The Snowy 2.0 project will also
involve surface works in
several locations including at the intake-outlet structures, surge shaft, cable and ventilation
portal sites. A number of supporting works will also be required such as
establishing or upgrading access tracks and roads and electricity connections to construction sites.
Snowy 2.0 will add 2 000 MW of energy generation
and provide 175 hours of energy storage for the
national electricity market, enough to
ensure the stability and reliability of the system during prolonged
weather events, such as wind or solar droughts.
Snowy Hydro already
plays a critical role in ensuring system stability at times of
peak demand, and Snowy 2.0 will enhance this existing capability.
Murray & Roberts Group CEO Henry Laas says the
group’s strategy to extend the group’s service offering
to complementary markets with active investment programmes is of critical
importance, considering the current lack of new project opportunities
in the Australasian liquid natural gas sector.
“We are extremely pleased with the award of
this project by Snowy Hydro,” says Clough
CEO and MD Peter Bennett. Currently
celebrating its hundredth year of operation, Clough is an
Australian-founded engineering and construction company
with a proven history of delivering world-class projects and
critical infrastructure.
Salini Impregilo are world leaders in hydropower and tunnelling and, combined with Clough, create an unrivalled partnership capability that will deliver the project to benefit the Australian community.http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/multibillion-dollar-contract-awarded-to-s-african-company-2019-02-15
