Coal plant owner did not value safety before Callide explosion, report finds

Safety had not been valued by the state-owned operator of a Queensland power plant before a catastrophic explosion, a report finds.

Almost half a million households were left without power after pieces of metal weighing almost half a tonne blasted out of a turbine in the May 2021 incident at central Queensland’s Callide Power Station.

Three years after the “catastrophic missile event” near Biloela, forensic engineer Sean Brady’s final report has been released.

It found state-owned operator CS Energy did not value safety or implement suitable welfare processes before the explosion.

Staff had raised concerns years before the explosion that Callide was an unsafe work environment and the lack of maintenance over the years could lead to an incident, Dr Brady found.

CS Energy chair Adam Aspinall on Wednesday said it was an unacceptable outcome at Callide that had damaged trust with the community and stakeholders.

“I apologise to our employees, the government and the people of Queensland for CS Energy not having maintained the world-class performance they expect,” he told reporters.

Mr Aspinall also apologised for ambiguous information being provided to the government.

Energy Minister Mick de Brenni in June claimed he received “incorrect” advice about Callide’s maintenance from CS Energy’s former CEO Andrew Bills and chairman Jim Soorley.

Mr Aspinall also flagged that legal proceedings may be initiated due to the report’s findings, and would not answer reporters’ questions as a result.

The explosion occurred after a planned upgrade left the plant without a battery source and no backup was in place, the report found.

This led to the turbine taking in power, overheating and exploding.

The report said if CS Energy had safety protocols in place it could have carried out a risk assessment to understand the danger of upgrading the battery without a backup in place.

CS Energy had longstanding issues with its systems and the lack of effective safety protocol was not unique to the May 2021 incident, the investigation found.

The company conducted reviews into its systems but the response to fix issues “rarely addressed the underlying causes”, Dr Brady found.

CS Energy said with a new board and management team it was rectifying issues raised in the report.

“There is nothing more important than safety,” CEO Darren Busine said.

The company has released an action plan to improve process safety risks, learn from mistakes and implement better systems.

The Queensland government announced it would appoint new advisers to the CS Energy board and launch a review into the business structure after a draft report on the incident was released in June.

One of the station’s turbines – Callide C4 – remains offline and after the ninth delay, will make a staged return to service at the end of August.

Source: AAP