Draft report finds broader failures behind Qld coal plant explosion

The news

A long-awaited draft report into the explosive breakdown of part of Queensland’s second-largest coal power station in May 2021 has found a wider failure of its state-owned operating partner to “value and implement effective process safety practices”.

The state government will now appoint special advisers to the CS Energy board and launch a review of all publicly owned power-generation companies, as the destroyed portion of the Callide plant – inland from Gladstone – readies to resume full capacity before August.

The state’s Callide power station hasn’t been at full capacity since 2021. One of its two plants is also only half-owned by the government’s CS Energy.

Why it matters

While some technical details about the explosion triggered by a cascade of events involving the connection of a new battery charger have been released, these only delved into the event itself and not into broader or organisational issues.

What was reported as an explosion and fire at the station now more than three years ago left 400,000 properties without power. Investigative work into its causes, and efforts to fix it, have dragged on since – including court action by the energy regulator.

The Labor government has insisted the incident and its flow-on effects have had minimal impact on increased power prices – mostly explained as being driven by bad weather and the war in Ukraine – and has long pledged to release the report when complete.

But the situation has fuelled LNP accusations of a “cover up” – denied by government – and mismanagement. The complex part-government ownership has also been subject to legal issues, amid moves to regain full state-control.

What they said

The draft of forensic engineer Dr Sean Brady’s independent report, commissioned by CS Energy one month after the incident, says the half-public ownership of one of the Callide station’s two plants drove “competing asset investment priorities”.

But it notes a failure of CS Energy to “understand and assess risk” leading to the incident and suggested it was not an isolated one, “rather a symptom of an organisation’s failure to value and implement effective process safety practices”.

This led to the situation where the changeover of a new battery charger triggered a complete loss of power and fail-safe systems, subsequent “motoring” of one of the station’s four turbines by the power grid, and its ultimate – violent – tearing apart.

“While the effective application of risk assessment and management of change processes would not necessarily have prevented the incident, they would have provided an opportunity to identify and manage the risks involved,” he wrote in a draft executive summary dated July 12.

Perspectives

In a joint statement, Premier Steven Miles and Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the CS Energy board advisers would be appointed amid a renewables-transition focused review of state-owned energy generators before the 2025 budget, with efforts to regain Callide’s full public ownership ongoing.

LNP energy spokesperson Deb Frecklington accused Labor of failing to maintain the station and driving up power prices, suggesting Miles had “serious questions to answer” about the careers of shareholding ministers de Brenni and Treasurer Cameron Dick.