I was going to say something about water in the Mitta Mitta flowing through the Dartmouth turbines, but I omitted it as I didn't want to go too much. But now Explorer has mentioned it...
The 'head' of the Dartmouth Dam hydro station is about 150 metres, the water then flows into a regulating pond which has it's own cute little hydro plant with a head of about 6~ish metres. However water harvested from the Bogong High Plains passes through four power stations with a combined head of over 1200 metres (I'm too lazy to look up the exact figure).
So a snowflake that falls on the Bogong High Plains and, when it melts, flows into the Kiewa hydro catchment provides over 8 times the electricity than its fellow snowflake that falls on the BHP and flows into the Mitta Mitta River and then through the Dartmouth Dam. That's a heck of a lot more valuable electricity.
The 'head' of the Dartmouth Dam hydro station is about 150 metres, the water then flows into a regulating pond which has it's own cute little hydro plant with a head of about 6~ish metres. However water harvested from the Bogong High Plains passes through four power stations with a combined head of over 1200 metres (I'm too lazy to look up the exact figure).
So a snowflake that falls on the Bogong High Plains and, when it melts, flows into the Kiewa hydro catchment provides over 8 times the electricity than its fellow snowflake that falls on the BHP and flows into the Mitta Mitta River and then through the Dartmouth Dam. That's a heck of a lot more valuable electricity.