Scorching weather, plant outages spark power fears

Heatwave conditions and unplanned outages at Queensland generators have sparked moves to curb power use. Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said late yesterday that power companies were working to cut demand. Major industrial users were being asked to reduce their use during the peak expected yesterday and this evening. “While we are working with major electricity users to manage demand, households can also take simple steps to help like turning off devices that are on standby and other appliances where it is safe to do so during the evening peak," Mr de Brenni said. “Essential services such as hospitals, transport networks, ports, airports and other key infrastructure will stay online." He said in a media statement that the hot weather coincided with unplanned outages at Callide C (offline following a 2021 incident) and Swanbank E. But CS Energy said late yesterday that in addition to work being undertaken to reinstate Callide Power Station Unit C4, it had two generating units temporarily offline – Callide Unit B2 and the Kogan Creek unit. Chief executive officer Andrew Bills said any decision to take a generating unit offline during summer was not taken lightly. “Our highest priority is the safety of our people and our plant, and this maintenance could not be deferred,” he said. These two units represent about 1070 megawatts (MW) of capacity. Mr Bills said Queensland had more than 13,000 MW of registered scheduled capacity and a further 2900 MW of semi-scheduled generation, including large scale solar and wind. Kogan Creek Power Station was taken offline on January 23 and is due to return to service on February 14. Callide B2 was taken offline on 26 January and is due to return to service on February 4. Opposition energy spokesman Pat Weir said he had been calling for months for Mr de Brenni to come clean on his plan to guarantee the security and reliability of Queensland’s electricity network. "We now have the government telling Queenslanders not to use their air conditioning or clothes dryers on one of the hottest days of the year," he said. Mr Weir said the Minister had refused to be transparent in declaring his failure to plan. "In doing so, the Minister has also failed in showing Queenslanders the integrity that is central to good governance.When governments give up on integrity, they give up on governing in your best interests. "That’s why we now don’t have the electricity network security Queenslanders are entitled to." Powerlink this morning thanked Queensland households and businesses for their efforts in reducing their energy use during the peak demand period yesterday. However Powerlink chief executive Paul Simshauser stressed that continuing hot, humid conditions meant people must be mindful about electricity consumption again today. “Through the efforts and cooperation of people and businesses around the state, demand for electricity reduced to a level where enough power generation was available to meet demand, but today’s hot weather means we need to ask electricity customers to reduce their energy consumption again where safe to do so,” Mr Simshauser said. “We expected a record 10,000MW peak demand yesterday and fortunately we had Queenslanders help bring that down by 500MW avoiding any power outages related to high peak demand. “Your safety and wellbeing is important so only reduce energy consumption if it is safe to do so. We appreciate your efforts in reducing power use. “We are expecting a slightly lower peak demand today however, hot and humid conditions means we are not entirely out of the woods." This story was updated on February 2

Scorching weather, plant outages spark power fears

Industry Queensland

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