The Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme will still benefit the nation despite the significant delays and cost blowouts, an inquiry has been told.
The largest renewable energy project in Australia stacked up despite a number of setbacks, Snowy Hydro Limited chief executive Dennis Barnes told a told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday.
"We have taken third party modelling and determined that over and above the $12 billion cost, there is a $3 billion net present value of the project," he said.
The hearing was told as of July the project had spent $4.3 billion and was 40 per cent complete.
It is due to be completed in December 2028.
Asked if the tunnel boring machine called Florence was bogged, Mr Barnes said it was not.
"There's been no point since Florence encountered this incredibly soft and wet ground in November 2022 that the machine has not been able in some way to move forward," he said.
Mr Barnes said the machine was ready to restart tunnelling, with the project awaiting approval from the NSW planning and environment department.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts accused the government of misinformation and "covering up a massive failure" in relation to the machine being bogged.
"There was no cost benefit analysis done, the whole thing is based on a false premise," he said.
Mr Barnes said the project was making good time on the Hunter Power Project, a gas-fired power station.
This would cost $950 million and was on track for delivery in December 2024.
