Two years on, why this Qld power plant exploded remains a mystery
Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni says he has full confidence in the CS Energy board despite taxpayers remaining in the dark over the cause of the catastrophic failure of the state-owned firm’s Callide C coal-fired power station more than two years ago.
The sustained outage of the 932 MW state-owned power station has pushed up electricity prices across the grid and raised questions about the long-term reliability of coal power stations across the National Electricity Market.
CS Energy’s Callide power station near Biloela has been beset with issues.
An independent review by forensic engineer Sean Brady into the high-profile failure is still not finished, meaning industry is no closer to finding out what happened to the C4 unit which exploded and caught fire in May 2021. Meanwhile, delays to the return of units at Callide C units have been pushed back into next year, putting further pressure on the grid.
CS Energy chairman Jim Soorley and former chief executive Andrew Bills both resigned this year.
Mr de Brenni, who has previously expressed frustration at the slow pace of the return at units at Callide C, said it was important to find out what went wrong at the power station in Central Queensland.
“We want to ensure an event like that which occurred at Callide does not happen again, anywhere,” he said in a statement to The Australian Financial Review.
“As such, it is crucial Mr Brady conducts a thorough investigation and within timeframes he considers appropriate. He is an expert in the field, and he, the CS Energy board, and its CEO [Darren Busine] have my full confidence.”
But critics have pointed out Dr Brady’s investigation into one unit at a coal-fired power station has taken longer than some royal
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