Callide operator warned of maintenance ‘backlog’ two years before explosion

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni and the Deputy Premier have accused former CS Energy bosses of lying, as Cameron Dick denies the government instructed maintenance be cut at Callide.

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Energy Minister Mick de Brenni has sensationally accused former CS Energy chief executive Andrew Bills and chairman Jim Soorley of lying to him about maintenance upkeep at the Callide Power plant.

Mr de Brenni took time out of his planned leave to front the media over the bombshell Brady report, which found maintenance and safety issues contributed to the 2021 explosion.

He said the advice he gave to parliament and Queenslanders that maintenance had been sufficient was solely based on what he had been told by CS Energy.

“What I was told was that all of their statutory and other maintenance that was required to be done was done the CEO and the chair told me that repeatedly,” he said.

“They told me that in writing, I looked him in the eye multiple times and ask them to confirm that with me and unequivocally. ”

Energy and Clean Economy Jobs Minister Mick de Brenni at a media conference on Thursday. Picture: David Clark

Mr Bills stepped down from his roles at CS Energy in February 2023, while Mr Soorley stepped down in June 2023.

Mr de Brenni said the government “acted to remove them” but would not indicate what exactly prompted their resignations, citing “general discontent” as the reason for their removal.

“They are no longer with CS Energy because I didn’t feel that they were performing effectively,” he said.

“I had a general dissatisfaction with the performance of the board and CEO, they had a power station explode, it took too long to reach agreement with the joint venture partners.

“I was quite comfortable with their decision to depart. I did not seek to ask them to stay on anyone.

“I wasn’t privy to the findings of the Dr Brady report. I am now and if they were still with the organisation, we’d be taking action now.”

Mr de Brenni went further saying he had no wish to speak with either Bills or Soorley in light of the Brady report, despite blaming them for the explosion.

Asked whether he had read either of the two maintenance reviews conducted in 2019 and again in 2022 when he was Energy Minister, Mr de Brenni said he didn’t know they existed until Tuesday.

Operators of the Callide Power Station were warned of maintenance backlogs two years prior to the explosion.

It comes as Mr de Brenni took a leave of absence from parliament following intense scrutiny over his handling of the 2021 Callide Power Station explosion.

Mr de Brenni came under fire this week, with Premier Steven Miles called on to sack the minister in the wake of the damning Brady report which showed a lack of maintenance contributed to the catastrophic explosion.

It is understood Mr de Brenni had pre-planned time off with his wife Kristie to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. He will return to work next week.

Employment and Small Business Minister Lance McCallum will become acting Energy Minister during Mr de Brenni’s absence.

Treasurer Cameron Dick vehemently denied instructing CS Energy to cut maintenance and joined Mr de Brenni in blaming the company for not telling the truth about safety issues.

“The report says, despite everything that was happening, internal and external messaging reflected a confident view that an effective safety program had been established,” he said.

“That’s what they were telling ministers, that’s what they were telling the world.

“They weren’t telling the truth.”

Speaking on 4BC radio, Mr Dick also said he made no apologies for making government owned corporations use taxpayer money “efficiently and effectively”.

“I told CS energy to print the annual report in black and white, I told them not to pay executive bonuses, but the idea that we told them to cut maintenance is completely untrue,” he said.

Deputy Premier of Queensland, Cameron Dick.

Mr Dick said CS Energy is “run at arms length from the government”.

“We never knocked back any maintenance requests they had. We provided them with the funding they needed,” he said.

“But there’s a difference between the government providing the maintenance funding and the funding for the organisation, and how the management then uses that funding internally.”

It comes amid revelations that CS Energy issued warnings that maintenance was being neglected at its plants just two years before a major explosion tore through the Callide plant cutting power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses.

The draft Brady report, released this week, cited a 2019 review that found a backlog of maintenance work “exceeds approval limits” and noted, if ignored, it “increases the risk to the business that sites will experience increased asset failures”.

A follow-up review of maintenance in 2022 – some 12 months after the C4 unit explosion that cut power to 440,000 Queenslanders – found the backlog “had not been brought back within KPI limits”.

One day after the explosion, on May 26, 2021, Energy Minister Mick de Brenni told parliament all required work at Callide had been completed.

“Of course the answer is yes, we can guarantee that all of the maintenance work that is required to be done on all of our power stations has been done,” he said.

The new revelations come as Premier Steven Miles continues to defend the government’s handling of the 2021 explosion and resists LNP calls to sack Mr de Brenni.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles at a media conference on Wednesday. Picture: John Gass

However, Mr Miles also argued cost cutting during the LNP’s time in power – between 2012 and 2015 – “was a cause here” and said the report detailed other problems that contributed to the incident.

“It points to changes in the system directed towards achieving privatisation around 2015, (it) points to management changes around 2017 and 2018,” he said.

“It points to management structure challenges associated with the complicated joint venture and the half privatisation.”

Mr Miles faced the press without Mr de Brenni on Wednesday but said he was “very comfortable” taking questions on his behalf.

When asked, however, whether the government would release the direction the LNP claims proved the state skimped on maintenance, Mr Miles said he’d have to ask Mr de Brenni.

Despite the Brady report noting a lack of maintenance was a contributor to the plant’s explosion, Mr Miles argued the primary cause was a failure to replace a battery charger.

He also denied the offline generator, which has reduced Queensland’s energy supply over the past three years, had contributed to a rise in energy prices.

“It has been very negligible, our energy system throughout this entire period has had sufficient supply,” he said.

There have been calls for Mick de Brenni to be sacked.

“For the premier to say that because some non-elected people have had some change in roles that somehow this means that all is forgiven, Queenslanders are paying record power bills, they won’t forgive that,” he said.

“There will be other people who’ve had responsibilities, who also need to be held accountable but in the Westminster system of government … someone’s got to be held accountable for that.”

The chief executive in charge at the time of the explosion, Andrew Bills, resigned in February 2023 for a job with SA Power Networks.

Mr Bills on Wednesday declined to comment.

Mr Crisafulli acknowledged maintenance failings from 2017 to 2020 occurred before Mr de Brenni was energy minister, but said he still had responsibility for the “multiple missed opportunities to do something about it”.

Mr de Brenni declined to comment, referring questions about what he knew of maintenance failings to the answers given by Mr Miles at his press conference.

Deputy LNP Leader Jarrod Bleijie said Mr Miles was attempting to avoid responsibility.

“Labor cut the maintenance funding, the power plant went boom, it drove up energy bills and they tried to cover it up,” he said.

“It was a press conference where Steven Miles was there, but it could have been Annastacia Palaszczuk. Deer in the headlights, excuses, blame game.”

Mr Crisafulli said an LNP government would push ahead to take full control of the Callide Power Station.

Originally published as Callide operator warned of maintenance ‘backlog’ two years before explosion