Callide C power station explosion report hits minister’s ‘guarantee’

An internal review warned of a dangerous backlog in maintenance at the CS Energy generator in Queensland two years before it exploded in 2021.

Callide C Power Station. Picture: Orin Lucke

An internal review warned of a dangerous backlog in maintenance at the CS Energy generator in Queensland two years before it exploded in 2021, cutting power to 500,000 homes and sending electricity prices soaring across the east coast of Australia.

A draft report into the explosion, released on Monday, shows that a 2019 review found the maintenance backlog exceeded approved limits and had heightened the risks of “increased asset failures” at the massive power-generating facility in Callide, central Queensland.

The internal review undermines repeated claims by Miles government ministers that maintenance work at Callide – which is operated and half-owned by the Queensland government’s CS Energy – had always fulfilled its statutory requirements under ­national rules.

The report by forensic engineer Sean Brady, detailing for the first time findings of his two-year investigation into the explosion, reveals that CS Energy did not catch up with the required maintenance work until after the ­explosion.

Premier Steven Miles on Wednesday blamed the explosion on “cultural issues” within CS Energy, and denied the poor maintenance contributed to the incident or was driven by ministerial demands to the power company to cut costs.

Dr Brady’s report revealed that in 2020, after CS Energy’s board had agreed to “reduce the statutory maintenance backlog”, the government restricted proposed plans to invest in the facility. “CS Energy sought to use surplus cash reserves for investment in its existing and new assets, but received a more limited agreement that debt management must be considered equally with portfolio revenue,’’ according to a draft “shareholder mandate”, negotiated between CS Energy and Treasury. The updated work maintenance procedure was finalised and rolled out after the incident in April 2022.”

Soon after the explosion in May 2021, Energy Minister Mick de Brenni – who is a shareholding minister of CS Energy – dismissed opposition questions in parliament about whether poor maintenance was a factor. “We can guarantee all of the maintenance work that is required to be done on all of our power stations has been done,’’ he said.

“There is a statutory requirement to do that and all of those obligations are governed by a national set of rules; you can’t ignore the maintenance requirements.’’

In his report, Dr Brady pointed to a litany of failures across CS Energy, with the failure to source an adequate battery-charging system that was “fit for purpose” leading directly to the explosion.

Dr Brady said organisational factors also pointed to major failings by the company’s management, board and the state government, which is CS Energy’s sole shareholder, and the mandates it gave over the running of the facility.

“In the years leading up to the incident, these mandates focused on cost savings, and performance indicators were dominated by fin­ancial and production metrics, as well as personal safety-related metrics,’’ he said in the report.

Mr Miles has rejected opposition calls to sack Mr de Brenni and on Wednesday moved to suggest the government had little control over CS Energy given it was partly owned by private joint venture partners. “It points to management structure challenges associated with the complicated joint venture and the half privatisation," he said

“It (made it) very hard to know who that generator answered to.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the report showed the government had pressured CS Energy to focus on cost-­cutting and paying dividends rather than keeping the facility safe and operational.