Heat and rain delay return to service of Queensland’s busted coal plants

The Queensland state owned CS Energy has announced another small delay to the return to service of its busted Callide C coal generators, this time because of hot and wet weather, and the added complications of Covid and the Gaza conflict.

Callide C has, or at least had, two 460 MW units but C4 has been out of service since May, 2001, because of an explosion that rocked the grid.

Unit C3 was taken offline in October, 2022 because of the structural failure of a cooling tower. An inspection decided that the cooling towers for both the C3 and the C4 units would have to be replaced.

The total cost of the repairs is estimated to be around $400 million, possibly more, leading many to question why the state government had bothered, amid suggestions that the money might be better spent on renewables or storage.

CS Energy had originally expected the coal units to return to service in February this year, before announcing delays to April this year, then to September and October, and then into 2024.

The C3 unit was more recently scheduled to make a partial return to service on January 7, but that has now been put back to January 24 before of more delays, this time blamed on rain and hot weather, and staffing problems because of covid and other illness.

It has also been affected by global supply chain issues made worse by freighters being diverted for humanitarian aid for the Gaza conflict and problems in India.

The C3 unit is expected to return to full capacity on February 24, while the completely rebuilt C4 unit is due back on line on May 19, at least at half capacity, before returning to full output in July.

CS Energy CEO Darren Busine said about 300 people are “working around the clock, seven days a week on site” and a logistics specialist has coordinated the movement of more than 1,000 tonnes of freight from around the world.

“This is a highly complex and unique project, and I would like to acknowledge the efforts of eveyone involved to progress the works to this stage. We are doing everything we can to have the unit back online as soon as possible.”

CS Energy owns 100 per cent of the Callide B coal plant and owns Callide C in a joint venture with IG Power.