Desalination plant builders sue German manufacturing giant Siemens

THE blame game over Victoria’s $24 billion white elephant desalination plant continues, with a case heading to the Supreme Court.

THE builders of Victoria’s desalination plant are suing German company Siemens over a major equipment blowout that occurred when workers first tried to produce water from it.

SUEZ Water — formerly known as Degremont — and Thiess are seeking unspecified damages for the debacle, which left the Andrews Government scrambling to fix the plant after the failure.

It was the latest in a series of problems with the $24 billion white elephant, including cost blowouts, power cable failures and pipe leaks that sparked major pollution concerns.

The plant, which has added $12 to household water bills since last July, is yet to contribute any meaningful amount of water to the state.

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Victoria's desalination plant in Dalyston. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Power equipment in the switchgear building — which connects the power line to the plant — was severely damaged and tripped the circuit breaker, immediately shutting down the plant.

According to a writ filed with the Supreme Court, a gas-insulated switchgear substation was severely damaged when a flashover occurred in a compartment of the desalination plant when it was activated on December 11, 2016.

As a result of the incident SUEZ and Thiess, who designed and built the plant operated by AquaSure, claim they suffered considerable costs repairing the plant and arranging an alternative power source, and damage to their property.

The breakdown also sparked fresh attacks on the government for turning on the plant at a time when the state’s water storage is sitting at 71.4 per cent.

The writ alleges the incident occurred because the substation and its supervisory control and data acquisition system provided by Europe’s largest industrial manufacturing conglomerate were defective, not fit for purpose and not of saleable quality.

SUEZ Water and Thiess are suing Siemens. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The builders claim the equipment’s failings were in breach of Siemens supply contract that the equipment would perform to the requested requirements and be free from defects.

Thiess and SUEZ claim that under the contract Siemens is liable for all losses, damages, costs and expenses resulting from any breach of the contract by Siemens.

They claim Siemens negligently breached its duty to take all reasonable care in supplying and installing the equipment.

Alternatively, the builders claim work done on the substation by Siemens earlier in 2016 was not up to standard.

Their writ says Siemens degassed and removed the links within the substation and undertook repairs to high-voltage cable joint bays before reinstalling the links and repassing the substation.

The builders claim Siemens failed to undertake this work with reasonable care and skill in breach of their contract agreement for those works.