Flooding hits Yallourn coal power as Callide unit returns

“Customers in the worst affected areas of The Dandenongs should prepare to be without power for the next 3 weeks,” AusNet tweeted.

“The initial estimates provided to customers were wrong. We are deeply sorry. We now understand the extent of the damage and scale of the recovery and repair ahead,” it said, giving a repair date of July 10 for some regions.

In Queensland, the first unit of the fire-damaged Callide power station came back online on Wednesday afternoon and will be ramped up to full production within 48 hours.

”After a tremendous effort involving more than 300 employees and contractors, at 4:30pm, unit B1 was turned back on and is now flowing reliable and firmed energy into the grid,” Queensland energy minister Mick de Brenni said late Wednesday.

“This is an important first step in Callide Power Station’s recovery.”

He said the units at the site will be progressively returned to service in a safe way without rushing. The Callide C4 unit that suffered the explosion is however anticipated to require up to 12 months for repair.

Resuming generation at the site is taking longer than initially anticipated with Unit B1 originally due to return to service on June 11, before being pushed back to June 15. Unit B2 is due to come back online on June 20, and Unit C3 on July 2, according to a schedule given by government-owned CS Energy on June 11.

The Callide outage helped boost wholesale power prices which were already on the rise before the explosion, while gas prices have also increased as gas station usage increased to compensate.

In Victoria, EnergyAustralia said its other power stations are available to meet customers’ energy needs during the reduction of generation at Yallourn, namely its Newport and Jeeralang power plants.

The Australian Energy Market Operator said it is working with energy generators on the outages “and can confirm sufficient power supply in Victoria to meet demand, with no foreseeable reserve issues forecast”.

EnergyAustralia said it has suspended access to areas impacted by the cracking and set up an exclusion zone. Geotechnical experts are working with EnergyAustralia staff and government on actions to stop the water flow around the area, including sealing cracks and diverting water.

Ms Westcott said EnergyAustralia was “preparing for limited mining activity” in another part of the Yallourn mine that is 4 kilometres away from the area impacted by the flooded river.