Barnes takes on the job from Feb. 1, just as Snowy Hydro reviews delays and cost blowouts on a huge expansion of Australia's biggest hydropower scheme, a project originally budgeted at A$5 billion ($3.5 billion).

The expansion is crucial to providing energy storage to provide power when wind and solar are unavailable, with the country looking to replace coal-fired generation and hit a target of 82% renewable energy by 2030.

Barnes said he was coming into the business "at a complex and important time for our entire sector".

"His appointment brings a wealth of strategic knowledge and proven capability in delivering strong performance across large energy businesses at an exciting time for Snowy Hydro," Snowy Chairman David Knox said in a statement.

Snowy's former CEO Paul Broad quit after nearly a decade in the job and one-third of the way into the massive Snowy 2.0 project, amid reports of project delays and a cost overrun of A$2.2 billion that Knox denied at the time.

The Snowy 2.0 project is being run by Italy's Webuild SpA, which bought out its partner Clough's share in the project, after the Australian engineering group collapsed in December.

($1 = 1.4302 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)