Setting aside the ongoing distractions stemming out of 13th February 2024, I’d returned my focus to the completion of the delayed GenInsights Quarterly Update for 2023 Q4 in spare moments over the weekend. More on that later …
But mapping out the week ahead I had been thinking that there’d be some return to service (RTS) for this coming Thursday 29th February 2024 (based on plans noted on 15th January) …
1) I’d quickly checked the ‘Generator Outages’ widget in ez2view
2) … and saw a RTS date for Callide C3 that did not map with my recollection (i.e. Sunday 31st March 2024, not Thursday 29th Feb 2024).
3) Remember that:
(a) this is the C3 unit has been offline since 31st October 2022 following cooling tower failure, and
(b) was planned to return earlier than the sibling C4 unit, which has been offline since 25th May 2021.
So I zoomed into the 3 x 3-year view of MT PASA DUID Availability data in the ‘Forecast Convergence’ widget, focused just on Callide C3, to see when this change was made:
Turns out the change was made in the MT PASA DUID Availability data set for the run at 09:00 on Tuesday 13th February 2024:
1) i.e. same day, but earlier than the ’Significant Power System Event’ in Victoria.
2) no real surprise, then, that we missed it!
Double checking the CS Energy Latest News service, wondering there had been something there that we’d missed, we see that same day CS Energy released its animation of what went wrong with Callide C4 on 25th May 2021 (which Callum was able to note for us here, given a few of us were buried in Victoria), there was also another media update on the latest delay in return to service for Callide C3:
We’d missed the article ‘Update on Callide Unit C3 partial return to service’ in our general busyness on the day – but it is well worth reading.
Amongst other things it noted:
‘Unit C3 has been in ‘preservation mode’ while the C3 cooling tower is being rebuilt. Throughout this time a regular inspection and maintenance program has been occurring to ensure the power station’s plant and equipment remain in good working condition to enable return to service.
This inspection program has detected carbon dust in the C3 generator which has arisen during the preservation process. To ensure safety in the return to service of the unit, the JV has made the prudent decision to fully inspect and clean the generator which will impact the return to service for partial load.’
That update (on 13th February 2024) was twelve days ago now and there’s no further update yet (and the RTS expectation is still the same as what it was noted in that News Update).
Apologies that we missed it at the time!
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