Seasonal Determination update

Determination Data

Seasonal determinations for northern Victoria regulated river systems.

Further Information

The Resource Manager for northern Victoria today announced increased 2015/16 seasonal determinations for the Murray, Broken, Goulburn, Campaspe and Loddon systems.

The Goulburn system increases by two per cent to 87 per cent high-reliability water shares (HRWS). The Murray system also increases by two per cent to 98 per cent HRWS. The Loddon system increases by three per cent to 74 per cent HRWS.

The Broken system increases by three per cent to 25 per cent HRWS and the Campaspe system increases by three per cent to 62 per cent HRWS.

Seasonal determinations in the Bullarook system remained unchanged.

“Patchy rain over the past fortnight has reduced demand and led to lower than forecast evaporation and river losses,” said the Resource Manager Dr Mark Bailey. “This has allowed small increases in the seasonal determination for most systems.”

Trading Opportunities

The Goulburn system’s inter-valley trade (IVT) account owes about 75 GL to the Murray system on February 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.

Customers participating in the water trading market can monitor trade availability on the Water Register website, waterregister.vic.gov.au/water-trading/allocation-trading.

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 150 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 next 2015/16 seasonal determination announcement will be released on Monday, February 15, 2016. The first outlook for seasonal determinations in the 2016/17 season will be released on Monday, February 15, 2016.

For information about the Resource Manager for northern Victorian regulated water systems, including seasonal determinations, resource availability and carryover volumes, please visit http://www.nvrm.net.au/. The status of Victorian shares of Murray storages is available at http://www.mdba.gov.au/managing-water/water-sharing.

Information about El Niño is available from the Bureau of Meteorology at www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso.

Details of the February to April 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.