CS Energy CEO Andrew Bills visited Callide Power Station today and has commended the actions of employees who responded to the incident on the Unit C3 cooling plant on Monday.
“Our people at Callide Power Station responded calmly and professionally and I would like to thank them for their efforts,” Mr Bills said.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is also visiting the site today and CS Energy will work cooperatively with them and other regulators as required.
CS Energy owns Callide C in a 50/50 joint venture (JV) with InterGen Australia.
Multiple inspections and checks have been conducted on the Callide C cooling towers this year and a maintenance program, informed by engineers including the Original Equipment Manufacturer had been developed and approved by the JV. This includes a $7 million project to conduct repairs in December 2022.
At the time of the structural failure on 31 October 2022, there was restricted access to the Unit C3 cooling plant to ensure the safety of people on site. Interim repairs had been conducted earlier in the year and risk assessments were in place based on independent engineering inspections.
Access to the area will remain restricted to enable an investigation into the root cause of the incident to be carried out, and assess the repairs required to make the area safe and return the unit to operation.
The Callide C JV has advised the market that Unit C3 will return to service on 21 November 2022. The return to service date is based on the information that the JV has available at this point in time and may be subject to further change.
Callide Power Station has a permanent workforce of 226 people and is comprised of two power plants, Callide B and C, each with two generating units (B1 and B2, C3 and C4).
We will provide further updates as information becomes available.