High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Waddamana Hydro-Electric power station was the first hydro-electric power plant ever operated by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Department (later the Hydro-Electric Commission or HEC), opened in 1916.The privately-owned Tasmanian Hydro-Electric and Metallurgical Co. Ltd. first took a serious interest in generating hydro-electric power from one of Tasmania's highland rivers in late 1909, to provide power for James Gillies' newly patented electrolytic process for zinc refining, and a "carbide" smelter to be constructed near Snug. They resolved to construct a hydro-electric power plant in the valley of the Ouse River, above the town that bears that name. Water was to be provided by a small dam on the Great lake at Miena, which would then divert water down the steep drop using a woodstave pipeline and a flume. Construction began in earnest in 1910.