Energy chief Richard Van Breda quits in coal row

The head of Queensland’s largest power company has quit after internal criticism over a transition from coal to renewables.

Richard Van Breda.

The head of Queensland’s largest power company has quit after facing internal criticism over his comments last week that it was planning to transition from a ­dependence on coal to renewables.

After almost 10 years as the state-owned Stanwell Corporation’s chief executive officer, Richard Van Breda resigned without explanation on Friday — two days after telling a future energy summit in Gladstone of planning to “retire” the state’s major coal-fired power generators.

The corporation’s generators — Stanwell, Tarong and Tarong North, with the latter two fed by its own Meandu coalmine — are among the country’s youngest coal-fired power plants and are not scheduled to close for up to two decades.

Stanwell employs about 1000 people at its plants and mine in central Queensland, where the debate over climate change and risk to jobs in the transition from coal to renewables has been a ­recurring issue across a string of marginal seats at state and federal elections.

The comments sparked anger within the local community and mining and electrical unions.

Mr Van Breda quit after a meeting with Stanwell chairman Paul Binsted and before the Palaszczuk Labor government — which has a 2030 target for 50 per cent renewable energy — distanced itself from the comments on Monday.

Mr Van Breda released a statement last Wednesday before the conference in which he touted Stanwell’s “plans to shift towards renewable energy and storage in the coming years’’.

“Australia is undergoing a major energy transition and it’s happening at a rapid pace,” he said. “Over the coming years, Stanwell will respond to the ­renewable energy needs of our large commercial and industrial customers through the introduction of new low- or zero-emission generation technologies.

“Stanwell recognises that over time the changes it has to make to its business, in order to remain relevant to its customers, would ­affect the futures of its people and its asset communities.

“We are taking early steps to bring our people, communities, unions and government together to put plans in place. These plans will help ensure that as we eventually retire our coal-fired assets from service, our people have choices in relation to retraining, redeployment and — where it is their preference — retirement.’’

All three of the plants have technical end-of-life dates of ­between 2037 and 2042.

It was reported last week that Stanwell had issued a statement that “it is likely” the plants would be retired earlier than the scheduled dates. That statement could not be found on Monday.

When asked if he had been asked to resign over his comments, Mr Van Breda said: “The decision to resign from Stanwell was mine alone.”

Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said there were no plans to shut the power stations.

“Stanwell and its workforce are critical to Queensland’s electricity supply,’’ he said on Monday.

“We will continue to have the highest respect for the livelihoods of the workers while we strive ­together to deliver cleaner, cheaper electricity for households and businesses and decent, secure jobs for Queenslanders.

“To be clear, there are no plans to decommission any of our publicly-owned generation assets in Queensland ahead of their time. In fact, Queensland needs significantly more generation to meet our aspirations for growth of our manufacturing and resources sectors.”