Final seasonal determination update for 2015/16

Determination Data

Seasonal determinations for northern Victoria regulated river systems.

Further Information

The Resource Manager for northern Victoria today announced the final seasonal determinations for 2015/16.

The Campaspe system increases by one per cent to 66 per cent of high-reliability water shares (HRWS). The Loddon system increases by two per cent to 84 per cent HRWS.

Seasonal determinations in the Murray, Broken, Goulburn and Bullarook systems remain unchanged.

“Evaporation losses were slightly lower than expected in the Campaspe and Loddon systems over the last fortnight. This enabled the small seasonal determination increases to be announced today,” Resource Manager for northern Victoria Andrew Shields said. “Inflows to the major storages remain very low.”

Outlooks for 2016/17

Due to continuing dry conditions, outlooks for 2016/17 seasonal determinations have been updated and are available on the Outlooks webpage. A detailed assessment will be provided on Monday, May 16, 2016.

Trading Opportunities

The Goulburn system’s inter-valley trade (IVT) account owes about 27 GL to the Murray system on April 1. The Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems can trade to the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia while the total volume owed to the Murray system is less than 200 GL.

The Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems can trade from the Victorian Murray system, New South Wales and South Australia while the total volume owed to the Murray system is greater than zero.

Allocation trade from New South Wales to Victoria is limited to the lesser of a net annual volume of 200 GL or a volume that keeps the risk of spill in the Murray system below 50 per cent. The spill risk limit allows more than 200 GL of trade, and so the net annual volume of 200 GL applies unless advised otherwise. So far this season, there has been more than 230 GL traded from New South Wales into Victoria, and over 30 GL traded out of Victoria to New South Wales. The availability of trade into Victoria is limited to the volume traded from Victoria to New South Wales.

Customers participating in the water trading market can monitor trade availability on the Water Register website.

Standard Murray-Darling Basin Authority policy prohibits the net trade of allocations from above the Barmah Choke to downstream to protect delivery of downstream water entitlements. However, there is currently about 149 GL of capacity available to trade from upstream to downstream. Customers can monitor trading opportunities across the Barmah Choke on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority website.

Upcoming Resource Manager Announcements

• The outlook for seasonal determinations in 2016/17 will be updated on Monday 16 May

For information about the Resource Manager for northern Victorian regulated water systems, including seasonal determinations, resource availability and carryover volumes, please visit www.nvrm.net.au. The status of Victorian shares of Murray storages is available at the MDBA website.

Information about El Niño is available from the Bureau of Meteorology.

Details of the April to June rainfall outlook are available from www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks and seasonal streamflow forecasts are available at http://www.bom.gov.au/water/ssf/index.shtml.