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Company type | Government-owned corporation |
---|---|
Industry | Energy |
Founded | 1997 |
Headquarters | Brisbane , Australia |
Area served | Queensland |
Key people | Darren Busine CEO Adam Aspinall Chairman |
Products | Electricity |
Owner | Government of Queensland |
Number of employees | 500+ |
Website | www |
CS Energy is an Australia-based electricity generating company fully owned by the Government of Queensland with its head office located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The company was established in 1997 and employs more than 500 staff. [1] Adam Aspinall is the Board Chair and Darren Busine is the Chief Executive Officer.
The company's generation portfolio comprises coal-fired power stations, energy storage [2] and renewable energy offtakes. [3] CS Energy has a trading portfolio of 3,535 megawatts in Australia's national electricity market. The company owns and operates Kogan Creek Power Station and Callide B Power Station. CS Energy also owns Callide Power Station in a 50/50 joint venture with InterGen.
CS Energy is adding the 100 MW/200 MWh Chinchilla Battery grid-scale battery to its Kogan Creek site on the Western Downs. [4] Construction is currently underway[ as of? ] on the battery and it is expected to be operational in late 2023. [5] [ needs update ]
CS Energy was awarded A$32 million in 2010 to help construct Australia's first large-scale solar thermal project at Kogan Creek Power Station. [6] Funding was provided by the Rudd Government under the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program. However, in March 2016, it was announced that CS Energy would 'pull the plug' on that project, [7] at a loss of $40M to CS Energy and $6M to ARENA.
In 2020, Stanwell and CS Energy were accused of driving up prices by creating an artificial lack of supply. [8] CS Energy and Stanwell are defending a class action filed by a law firm and backed by litigation funders related to historical electricity prices. CS Energy has publicly rejected the claims being made and is strongly defending the class action. [9] An initial hearing is scheduled to commence in the Federal Court of Australia in June 2024.
Major assets owned by CS Energy include:
Martin Moore was the CEO in 2017. Andrew Bills was appointed as CEO in 2018 and resigned in February 2023 following his appointment as CEO of SA Power Networks. [12] Darren Busine was appointed as the new permanent CEO in June 2023. [13]
In June 2023, Jim Soorley resigned as Chairman of CS Energy. [14] Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni confirmed Mr Soorley “has made the decision” to leave the role he has held since 2015 and will be replaced by CS Energy director Adam Aspinall. [15]
The Wivenhoe Power Station is situated between the Splityard Creek Dam and Lake Wivenhoe. The Splityard Creek Dam is situated in hills adjacent to Lake Wivenhoe and is about 100 metres (330 ft) above it. The power station is the only pumped storage hydroelectric plant in Queensland.
Stanwell Power Station is a government-owned coal-fired power generation station located in Stanwell, 23 kilometres (14 mi) south-west of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. At the time of construction, it was one of the largest industrial developments undertaken in Queensland. With a capacity to generate 1,445 megawatts (MW), Stanwell Power Station supplies electricity for distribution to customers via the state's high voltage electricity grid.
Callide Power Station is an electricity generator at Mount Murchison, Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. It is coal powered with eight steam turbines with a combined generation capacity of 1,720 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Callide A was commissioned in 1965, refurbished in 1998 and decommissioned in 2015/16. As of 2018, generation capacity was 1510 MW.
The Swanbank Power Stations are located in Swanbank within South East Queensland, Australia. The original power station was coal fired, but the site has since moved to gas. By 2007 the site had consisted of the highly efficient 385 megawatts (516,000 hp) gas-fired Swanbank E Power Station and the smaller 28 megawatts (38,000 hp) gas-fired Swanbank C Power Station. Swanbank E was written off by the Queensland Audit Office as having no value, as it is uneconomical to run in 2021.
Mica Creek Power Station is located 5 km south of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland, Australia. It was natural gas powered with 12 turbines of various sizes that generate a combined capacity of 318 MW of electricity. The power station is owned by state government owned Stanwell Corporation.
Stanwell Corporation is a Queensland government-owned corporation. It is the state's largest electricity generator and Australia’s Second-largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Solar power is a major contributor to electricity supply in Australia. As of December 2023, Australia's over 3.69 million solar PV installations had a combined capacity of 34.2 GW photovoltaic (PV) solar power. In 2019, 59 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 2,881 MW were either under construction, constructed or due to start construction having reached financial closure. Solar accounted for 12.4% of Australia's total electrical energy production in 2021.
Renewable energy in Australia is mainly based on biomass, solar, wind, and hydro generation. Over a third of electricity is generated from renewables, and is increasing, with a target to phase out coal power before 2040. Wind energy and rooftop solar have particularly grown since 2010. The growth has been stimulated by government energy policy in order to limit the rate of climate change in Australia that has been brought about by the use of fossil fuels. Pros and cons of various types of renewable energy are being investigated, and more recently there have been trials of green hydrogen and wave power.
The Kogan Creek Power Station is a 750 megawatt coal fired power station owned by CS Energy on the Darling Downs in Queensland. The $1.2 billion plant is situated at Brigalow, in the Surat Basin between Dalby and Chinchilla.
Queensland's energy policy is based on the year 2000 document called the Queensland Energy Policy: A Cleaner Energy Strategy. The Queensland Government assists energy development through the Department of Energy and Water Supply. The state is noted for its significant contribution to coal mining in Australia. The primary fuel for electricity generation in the state is coal with coal seam gas becoming a significant fuel source. Queensland has 98% of Australia's reserves of coal seam gas. An expansion of energy-intensive industries such as mining, economic growth and population growth have created increased demand for energy in Queensland.
The energy sector in Hawaii has rapidly adopted solar power due to the high costs of electricity, and good solar resources, and has one of the highest per capita rates of solar power in the United States. Hawaii's imported energy costs, mostly for imported petroleum and coal, are three to four times higher than the mainland, so Hawaii has motivation to become one of the highest users of solar energy. Hawaii was the first state in the United States to reach grid parity for photovoltaics. Its tropical location provides abundant ambient energy.
Areva Solar was part of the renewable energies portfolio of the French nuclear group Areva, headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in the United States and Australia. It designed, manufactured and installed solar steam generators for electric power production and industrial steam uses. Before 2010, the company existed as Ausra Inc. In August 2014, AREVA announced it was shuttering AREVA Solar.
The electricity sector in Australia has been historically dominated by coal-fired power stations, but renewables are forming a rapidly growing fraction of supply. In 2021, Australia's electricity production reached 265 TWh, with coal accounting for 52.9% and natural gas for 18.8%. Renewable sources, comprising solar, wind, hydro, and bioenergy with waste, collectively made up 26.7% of the total electricity generation mix.
Neoen is a French producer of exclusively renewable energy headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 2008, it develops, finances, builds and operates solar power plants, wind farms and energy storage solutions. As at 30 June 2023, the company's total capacity was 7 GW, made up of 47% solar, 34% wind and 19% battery storage. Neoen aims to attain 10 GW in operation or under construction by 2025.
Trevor Charles St Baker is an Australian businessperson with interests in power station and fuel supply development. He is director of the St Baker Energy Trust and chair of Sunset Power International. He is founder and deputy chair of ERM Power Limited.
The Tesla Megapack is a large-scale rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage product, intended for use at battery storage power stations, manufactured by Tesla Energy, the energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc.
Shell Energy Australia provides gas, electricity, environmental products and energy productivity services to commercial and industrial customers.
The Western Downs Green Power Hub is a large solar farm at the Kogan Creek Power Station near Chinchilla in Queensland, Australia. The photovoltaic solar power station uses one million solar panels to generate 400 megawatts of power. It utilizes 72-cell bi-facial solar modules on single-axis trackers; a system that tracks the sun throughout the day. It was the largest solar farm in Australia for some time.
CleanCo Queensland is a Queensland Government-owned corporation. CleanCo own and operate a range of electricity generation assets in Queensland, consisting of run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, pumped-storage hydroelectricity, gas-fired generation, grid-scale solar and wind power generation. Queensland has a plan to generate 50% of its electricity from renewables sources by 2030. CleanCo was established in 2018.