Callide Power Station explosion: Lack of information costs top jobs
Two top electricity bosses have lost their jobs after failing to convey the seriousness of the latest Callide Power Station explosion.
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Downplaying the seriousness of the Callide Power Station explosion has cost CS Energy’s CEO and the station’s general manager their jobs.
Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki revealed the pair would leave the government-owned power generator following a failure to communicate the seriousness of the April 4 explosion.
Mr Janetzki said CS Energy’s first incident notification at noon on April 4 failed to convey the gravity of the situation and repeatedly insisted it was not uncommon.
The senior minister – who copped criticism for not mentioning the incident during a landmark energy speech four days later – acknowledged he should have asked further questions at the time.
The extent of the damage was only exposed later through whistleblower reports.
“This was a failure at the highest levels of CS Energy and I’ve taken important steps to ensure these communication and operational failures are never repeated,” he said.
“I have directed those individuals involved with CS Energy’s decision to keep Queenslanders in the dark about this incident be held accountable.
“The general manager of the Callide Power Station will be departing the company, effective immediately.”
CS Energy CEO Darren Busine resigned on April 3 and was due to finish on May 2, however Mr Janetzki brought forward his departure to Sunday.
Station general manager Mick Hill will also depart.
CS Energy declined to comment.
The company initially said the C3 Unit had tripped, causing a controlled release of gas from the furnace on Level 10, causing cladding and lagging to detach.
Mr Janetzki said that information had been conveyed to Premier David Crisafulli’s office soon after.
“It’s now clear the information provided to me and therefore the information provided to the Premier’s office, was grossly inaccurate and misrepresented the severity of the incident,” he said.
The government has directed energy generators to ensure future outages are be communicated to Queenslanders, just like Energex and Ergon.
Mr Crisafulli on Sunday morning said Mr Janetzki’s failure to mention the incident in a landmark energy speech four days later was a transparency issue.
It was despite the speech featuring a controversial pledge to keep the ageing Callide coal generator open past its 2028 retirement date.
Mr Crisafulli said on Sunday Mr Janetzki should have mentioned the explosion because it would have certainly helped him politically to remind Queenslanders of the former government’s lack of investment in energy assets.
“It is a transparency issue, and it should be made public because it shows the mess he’s got to mop up, a mighty big mess,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“The fact that an asset like that could be starved in maintenance funding and it put workers at risk that is a disgrace.
“They should do that, and the minister should have raised it.”
Mr Crisafulli said he had been “blown away by how serious this is” and blamed the former government.
“It’s alarm-bell territory that something like this could happen, but that system didn’t deteriorate in 150 days of our government,” he said.
“It’s been 10 years of no maintenance, and I didn’t realise to think that we could have workers put in that situation on multiple occasions over the last 10 years tells you why we need a maintenance guarantee.”
Deputy Opposition Leader Cameron Dick rejected claims the former government had starved the states power generators of maintenance funding.
“What we do know is that there were significant investments into those power stations following incidents, that they were significant investment made into maintaining those assets and this government now needs to explain what has happened on their watch,” he said.
Originally published as Callide Power Station explosion: Lack of information costs top jobs
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