Queensland's mass power outage like 'two cyclones happening at once'

Queensland's mass power outage has been likened to "the impact of two cyclones happening at once" following an explosion at the state's Callide power plant yesterday.

Hundreds of thousands lost power due to the outage yesterday bringing systems across the state to a grinding halt.

The incident is believed to have been caused after a fire erupted in one of the station's four turbines leading to an explosion, the state's Energy Minister, Mick de Brenni told Today.

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Mr de Brenni described the incident as "unprecedented", reassuring Queenslanders power will stay on going forward.

"We don't expect that there's going to be another incident like that," he said.

"I want to reassure all Queenslanders that the system is safe. It is operational. And we will continue to make sure that they get cheap, reliable power.

"The guarantee that we can give to all electricity consumers, householders an businesses in Queensland, is that they can rely on their power, the lights being on today."

READ MORE: Fire causes major power outage in south-east Queensland

https://twitter.com/powerlinkqld/status/1397137983275290624

The Callide power plant is one of the state's youngest electricity generators, built in 2001.

Energy provider Energex confirmed the "widespread outage", that began about 2.30pm, was affecting customers "from the Gold Coast to Caboolture".

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said 400,000 people initially lost power with traffic lights and airport systems also impacted.

Power has since been restored however the impacted turbine remains out of action.

No members of staff at the power plant were injured during the explosion and investigations into exactly how the fire began are ongoing.

"The good news is that early indications suggest that it appears the other three turbines are undamaged ... we are hopeful that we will be able to get it operational as soon as possible," Mr de Brenni said.



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