Fire Destroys Hydro Tasmania's Tungatinah Power Station

Investigations are underway into the cause of a major fire at Hydro Tasmania's Tungatinah PowerStation at Tarraleah in the Central Highlands last night.

The Tasmanian Fire Service received the call around 8.50 pm about the fire at the PowerStation, which was eventually brought under control in the early hours of Thursday morning (this morning).

Hydro Tasmania says no employees or contractors were at the station and no one was injured in the structure fire.

The full extent of the fire damage and how it started is still being assessed, with the Lyell Highway to stay closed between Victoria Valley Road and Fourteen Mile Road for 24 hours while investigations continue.

At a press conference this morning, Premier Jeremy Rockliff assured Tasmanians the state's power supply remained stable.

"Tungatinah Power Station is a very important part of our Hydro network, accounting for around 5 per cent of Tasmania's power," he said.

"I want to assure Tasmanians there is no risk to Tasmania's power and energy supply."

Mr Rockliff said the government would work closely with Hydro Tasmania and TasNetworks to ensure the state's energy supply remained stable.

"We will continue, of course, to assess the damage, and focus our efforts then on rebuilding what is very important infrastructure for Tasmania's hydro network and energy supply.

The complexity of the fire along with the partial collapse of the station has kept Tas fire crews from entering the building until further advice is received on safety issues.

Tungatinah Power Station has provided around 5% of Tasmania's power, with Hydro Tasmania boss Rachel Watson saying the State's power backup is secure.

"We are very confident we have sufficient capacity through our wide network of other Hydro power stations to keep the power system reliably running in Tasmania."

 Hydro Tasmania will turn on the Tamar Valley Power Station, which runs on gas, by the end of the week to offset any impact of the Tungatinah Station fire.

Deputy Fire Chief Matt Lowe said, "Our fire scene examiner is on the way up there at the moment, and he will work together with detectives and with police forensics to determine the fire's cause".

25 crews and about 45 people from the fire service and State Emergency Service were on scene. The building dates back to 1953 and is a corrugated iron-clad steel-frame structure.

Hydro has said it has insurance on all its power stations and would draw on it if needed. It was too early to estimate the cost of repairs or a rebuild.