Given that I had the ‘MT PASA DUID Availability’ widget open in ez2view to look at the recently extended outage for Kogan Creek, I thought I’d also use it to check out a couple of other long-term outages of major plant:
1) In this article we’ll look quickly at the Callide C4 unit which came offline on 25th May 2021 (almost 18 months ago now) with the Callide C4 Catastrophe.
2) We’ll also look at the current (and slipped) outage on Loy Yang A2 in a separate article.
(A) Current expectations in ‘MT PASA DUID Availability’ widget
Last article I wrote about Callide C4 was back on 30th December 2021, when I wrote that ‘Callide C4 updated RTS expectations on 5th November 2021 (now not expected back online until 7th April 2023’.
The good news is that there’s been no further change in the expected return to service (RTS) date for this unit … still out at 7th April 2023 (which is now only 6 months away).
(B) Updates from CS Energy
I also noticed, when having the CS Energy ‘Latest News’ section open, I see that they had a recent update on Callide C4 and wondered if there were any more since December 2021, so in reverse-chronological order:
11th Oct 2022 = Update on Callide Unit 4 recovery
Yesterday (Tue 11th Oct) they published this article ‘Update on Callide Unit C4 recovery’, which notes:
‘CEO Andrew Bills said work at the power station had focussed on repairs and removing damaged plant, in readiness for when replacement components arrive at site from overseas.
“The new C4 generator arrived in late September at the Port of Gladstone and we are expecting the generator transformer to arrive at the end of October,” Mr Bills said. “The components will be transported progressively to Callide Power Station.
…
Other major components being replaced are the turbine, automatic voltage regulator for the generator and the turbine governor.’
That’s a useful update.
13th June 2022 = Broader Portfolio
As part of the broader concerns during the 2022 Energy Crisis, the company had also published an update ‘Statement on CS Energy Plant Availability’, which made brief mention of the long-term outage on C4.
1st February 2022 = Broader Portfolio
It seems like a lifetime ago to think back to 1st February 2022, but a quick review of WattClarity articles reveals it was an eventful day with…
1) Amongst other things, ‘Intervention, Directions, Reserve Trader etc’.
2) And ‘only 5% IRPM in the QLD Economic Island’.
On that day, the company had also published an update ‘Statement on CS Energy Plant Availability’, which also made brief mention of the long-term outage on C4.
PS1) Courier Mail flags possible snag
A couple different readers have asked if we’d seen the article in the Courier Mail ‘Scrambling – QLD’s vital power generator stranded at port’…. but I don’t subscribe to that paper. This is what’s shown online free-access:
A potential snag, perhaps … but obviously these kinds of deliveries were made in the past for units B1, B2, C3 and C4 – so I’m sure some sort of solution will be found.
Leave a comment