CS Energy Ltd Callide C4. The coverup continues after RTS at vast cost with no insurance

[Richard Baum]

thread815-483510
CS Energy’s Ltd Callide C4 Management allowed maintenance staff to isolate the critical 220V DC Battery supply with the C4 unit in Service, without informing the unit C4 operator who was in control. He was left with his control panel isolated.
Process Safety proceedure had been removed by CS Energy’s management’s lack of knowledge or understanding
A critical insurance payment has been lost as it is impossible to insure against a lack of knowledge or understanding and behaviour that shows a lack of good sense of judgement.
Technical Writer gobbledygook has been used to try and hide what happened

 

[IRstuff]

Please refrain frmo duplicate posting. There is already a thread about Callide
thread815-516441

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[Richard Baum]

Hi IRstuff an Eng-Tips Forums Fellow and member of the Eng-Tips Forums Round Table, where management is advised on site operations and proposed programming enhancements. After joining Eng-Tips Forums on June 4, 2002, I've logged in 53,285 times.

The above new thread is about CS Energy Ltd and the extent that company owned by the Queensland Government has gone to to hide that they allowed the critical 220vdc supply to C4 steam Turbine to be isolated with the alternator in service
The cost is vast and the coverup continues. Please do a little bit of research before removing what you consider to be a duplicate posting because it is not. There are many court cases and a vast effort to hide the truth.

 

[zeusfaber]

Looks like you want to start a thread that isn't really about Engineering Failures and Disasters. Political conspiracy theories (even those that are justified) are more at home in forum1088

 

[jgailla]

That's sad, zeus. Conspiracy theories and other lunacy were never allowed by either Pat. That forum is a cesspool now.

 

[waross]

Engineering failures due to management overriding good engineering and general MBA syndromes are becoming too much a part of too many engineers experience.
I don't consider the discussion of a management/MBA conspiracy to cover up a disaster to be a "Conspiracy Theory".
It's a fact of life that impacts engineers careers.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[FacEngrPE]

Engineers are frequently called into "Root Cause" investigations which only get as far as finding blame. Us engineers need to understand how much this wrongheaded approach hurts the working environment.

Brady Heywood investigated all fatal accidents in Queensland mines and quarries from 2000 to 2019. found that most companies shortcut the investigative process, and as a result do not solve "root causes".

Yes this is a management failure that keeps on giving. Engineers are often called on to solve management failures, so I vote this thread belongs somewhere.

<opinion>As there is only one forum in "Forensic Engineering" (this one) this subject belongs here until a new more appropriate forum becomes available. </opinion>

If one of the previous threads such as thread815-516441 is still open, putting this subject mater in that thread is also appropriate.

 

[zeusfaber]

this subject belongs here until a new more appropriate forum becomes available.

There is thread about this already - and a major focus of that thread since about May has been to debate how far politicians are to blame and how hard they may have tried to conceal that from the public. If the Engineering and the politics are all of a piece, then why not keep them together where they belong in the existing thread?

 

[Richard Baum]

Dear zeusfaber's (Military) you have made a excelent effect over your years of good work for that we thankyou! but with this thread that I have started you could have lost the plot.
I am a retired power plant operator 20 years ago and sense that something is very wrong with what happened at with the Callide C4 Turbine and why it was allowed to motor to complete distruction The court cases have not been completed, the insurance payment has been lost.
I am trying to find out what really happened and why. The politics are only of passing interest. what really happened?
The fact that the enquiry was made on behalf of a law firm employed by CS Energy Ltd so the results could be hidden rings alarm bells.
the fact that the insurance payment has not been made three years after the the turbine was wrecked.
the fact that a class action for compensation is ongoing.
the fact that CS Energy's management has been changed.
There is a very strong smell of coverup.
Why is CS Energy trying to hide what really happened.
All I am trying to do is to find out so it does not happen again.
CS Energy’s Ltd Callide C4 Management allowed maintenance staff to isolate the critical 220V DC Battery supply with the C4 unit in Service, without informing the unit C4 operator who was in control. He was left with his control panel isolated.
Process Safety proceedure had been removed by CS Energy’s management’s lack of knowledge or understanding
A critical insurance payment has been lost as it is impossible to insure against a lack of knowledge or understanding and behaviour that shows a lack of good sense of judgement.
Technical Writer gobbledygook has been used to try and hide what happened

 

[davidbeach]

I think that there might have been less push-back if you'd just added to the existing discussion in thread815-516441 rather than starting a new thread that doesn't build on what's gone before.

When one this sentence into the German to translate wanted, would one the fact exploit, that the word order and the punctuation already with the German conventions agree.

-- Douglas Hofstadter, Jan 1982

 

[SWComposites]

Why is CS Energy trying to hide what really happened. Money. And to avoid potential criminal liability. Duh.

 

[waross]

The immediate cause may be hiding the root cause.
There was some bad engineering in that supposedly redundant systems were not, in fact, redundant.
Lube oil and sealing oil pumps should never have been added to the control battery bank.
These pumps should have been on dedicated back up battery systems.
A failure of control power should not have impacted these critical pumps.
A lesson to some of us; Don't assume that devices such as battery chargers will function properly in parallel without verification.
While maintenance failed to notify operations of their switching (That should have been transparent to the operators) and management was lax in not repairing a transfer switch that may have mitigated the crisis, this was a true design engineering failure.
Systems that were thought to be redundant were not, in fact, redundant.
Is the design firm facing legal action as well for a faulty design or was CS Energy also responsible for the design?

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[EnzoAus]

More local commentary (linkedin) from concerned individuals in Australia if you filter out the political biases. There is no doubt that one can't avoid the sense that those individuals responsible for the incident seem to get off scot-free whilst the public pick up the bill.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nyunggai-warren-mundine-ao-76997358_ugcPost-7255359231023816705-P1AE