The government has announced a $31 million overhaul of the coal-fired Callide B Power Station’s unit one, to take part in July.
Queensland Minister for Energy Mark Bailey said the overhaul was critical to continuing the state’s electricity supply reliability.
He said the government was moving the state towards obtaining more of its power from renewable sources.
“But as we move to a cleaner and greener future, it is critical that baseload generators like Callie B power station are well maintained to provide security of electricity supply for Queensland,” Bailey said.
Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt said the overhaul would bring flow-on economic benefits to central Queensland.
“The $31 million overhaul will create and sustain around 350 direct jobs,” he said.
“This is in addition to the power station’s permanent workforce of around 205 employees.”
When operating at full capacity Callide Power Station, which is made up of two operating power plants Callide B and C, produces 1510 megawatts.
Callide B alone has two generating units, each with a 350MW capacity.
Callide C was Australia’s first power station fitted with high efficiency super critical boiler technology while Callide A was the site of the Callide Oxyfuel project.
The Oxyfuel project demonstrated how carbon capture technology could be added to existing power facilities. It has been decommissioned.
The Callide Power Station is 18km east of Biloeala in central Queensland and supplies baseload electricity to the national electricity market. It is run by state-owned electricity generator CS Energy.
Meanwhile, CS Energy has extended its contract with Golding to operate the Kogan Creek coal mine near Chinchilla in southwest Queensland until July 2019. There is an option to extend that further to June 30 2022.
The Kogan Creek mine employs 75 people and supplies about 2.5 million tonnes of coal per year to the neighbouring 750MW Kogan Creek Power Station.
Golding CEO Geoff Caton said Kogan Creek had been one of Golding’s pillar contracts since 2006 when it developed the greenfield site on behalf of CS Energy.
