Blackout threat as Queensland power station shuts down

The shutdown of a Queensland state-owned power station sparks warnings of blackouts and price spikes.

All of the generators at the Callide power plant, in central Queensland and owned by government-owned corporation CS Energy, were in ‘black start mode’ for several hours on Friday morning.

One of Queensland’s state-owned coal-fired power stations shut down for hours on Friday, sparking warnings of blackouts and price spikes over summer.

Mining and energy union bosses claim the state Labor government-owned CS Energy has put off much-needed maintenance at the Callide power plant in central Queensland, leading to catastrophic failures.

A cooling tower collapsed on Monday, a boiler blasted out high-pressure hot gas on Tuesday, and a fault on Friday saw caused all four Callide generating units to shut down.

The fourth has been out of ­action since an ­explosion in May last year, and won’t be fixed until April.

Mining and Energy Union district vice-president Shane Brunker said CS Energy had been warned in 2017 that the cooling tower that collapsed was at risk of structural failure and needed to be rebuilt, but nothing was done. It now won’t be back online until January.

CS Energy chief executive ­Andrew Bills said he was “not at all happy with the performance of our plant” and said the cooling tower had already been due to be repaired in January.

Mr Bills said an investigation would be launched into why it failed early, and dismissed warnings that Callide’s diminished generation, as well as an extended outage for planned maintenance at CS Energy’s Kogan Creek plant, could cause blackouts.

Queensland’s electricity sector is under pressure after one of the state-owned coal-generated power stations shut down entirely on Friday.

“There are no concerns in Queensland,” Mr Bills said. “Queensland is blessed with a ­really diverse energy supply. And given the conditions we’re seeing at the moment, there’s no concerns.”

Mr Bills said he was not aware of any maintenance that had been delayed.

But the Australian Energy Market Operator said it was investigating whether the coal shutdown may cause a supply crunch during peak demand this summer.

“At this stage, there is sufficient supply to meet forecast demand in all national electricity market regions,” an AEMO spokeswoman said.

“As part of our summer readiness process, AEMO is assessing whether there will be any potential impacts to reserve levels through summer resulting from the Callide C3 outage.”

The combined 1540 megawatt capacity of Callide accounts for over a quarter of the state’s daily needs and the loss of at least two units for several months may cause problems when hot weather hits the state this summer.

“It is a low-demand day in the market, so there are no real concerns for now – but it is more a case of what might happen if there’s an early hot burst that drives demand up,” said Paul McArdle from consultancy WattClarity.

The union’s Mr Brunker said the government-owned generators were delaying maintenance at the plants, putting workers and energy security at risk.

“If we have a weather event, over the next few days, like a hot day that increases demand or a heap of rain, that stops the solar, you could see blackouts and load shedding,” Mr Brunker said.

“At the moment, the solar is filling the gap during the middle of the day.”

“(Energy Minister Mick) de Brenni is more worried about his Alice in Wonderland renewables plan and pumped hydro around the state, that hasn’t been costed and hasn’t got environmental ­approvals.”

The state announced an accelerated renewables plan last month, centred around a promise to phase-out coal-fired power by 2035. The policy relies on two major new pumped hydro and storage projects in regional Queensland, which still need detailed work.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the state’s power system remained secure and “supply currently exceeds demand”.