The next chapter in the Snowy scheme, and the largest renewable energy project in Australia

Snowy 2.0 is a nation-building project that will provide on-demand energy and large-scale storage, as Australia aims to transition to a low-carbon emissions future. The project involves linking the Tantangara and Talbingo dams through 27km of tunnels, as well as building a new underground power station.

Desanco was engaged to provide a fire and explosion assessment for the transformer cavern as part of the safety studies for the project. A representative transformer cell was modelled and the explosion overpressures, fire thermal and radiation loads were computed within the cell to help inform the structural design of the cavern. The analysis was conducted for large and small fires, with ventilation dampers open/closed, and for catastrophic failure of the transformer tank.