PAUL Broad's departure from Snowy Hydro followed comments he made to the Newcastle Herald raising doubts about running the Kurri Kurri gas turbine on hydrogen - doubts that were confirmed by a Budget estimates committee today.
As well as hearing the background to Mr Broad's departure, the estimates committee was told that $700 million promised by Labor for the hydrogen upgrade was not in the recent budget and was still dependent on a final investment decision by Snowy Hydro.
As well, Snowy interim CEO Roger Whitby told the committee the Kurri turbines would need "retrofitting" with new burners and possibly emissions control equipment to run on any more than 15 per cent hydrogen, and that hydrogen could not be fed to the plant through the gas pipeline that must be built to connect Kurri to the main gas system.
He was unable to be specific as to how the hydrogen would get to the plant, but insisted the project was still "hydrogen ready".
Mr Whitby, who was chief operating officer when Mr Broad was CEO, said Kurri had been delayed by wet weather but was still on track to deliver "first power", although not necessarily full output, by the end of 2023.
In his opening remarks he described Snowy Hydro as the "market insurer" of the power grid, and said record levels of demand for Snowy Hydro's power had forced it to operate like a baseload power station, "which is not what we are supposed to do".
It had "significantly depleted" its water reservoirs, going into summer.
The Kurri issues raised yesterday by Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes and Greens Senator Janet Rice are broadly in line with those raised by the Herald in August.
The hearing was told Mr Broad had just been rewarded by the Snowy Hydro board with a performance payment for meeting his targets as CEO, when Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen made his displeasure felt.
Mr Broad resigned on August 26 and yesterday's hearing confirmed he received a termination payment "as a good leaver".
The secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, David Fredericks spoke at one point of concerns about "a lack of transparency" in Mr Broad's communications with the government.
But after watching the committee hearings yesterday, Mr Broad said: "There was no lack of communication, it was rather that Chris Bowen didn't want to hear what I had to say."
Mr Broad's resignation followed Newcastle Herald articles quoting him and raising concerns over the ability of the Kurri Kurri gas turbine to be converted to run on hydrogen - a key Labor election commitment.
Snowy Hydro chair David Knox said he met on August 23 with Mr Bowen and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher to update them on the company's work.
"We discussed the communication issues between Snowy Hydro and the secretaries, and the departments and the ministers," Mr Knox said.
"The minister (Bowen) was very clear that he needed to see those communications improve, that they were unsatisfactory and that was one of the core bits of feedback we had from that meeting."
Mr Bowen had said it was very important that there were "never any surprises either to departments or to ministers".
THE HERALD'S KURRI ARTICLES:
- Broad says 'a lot to do' to get hydrogen into Kurri
- Hydrogen hype Part 1
- Hydrogen economy hype Part 11
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Paul Broad resigns from Snowy Hydro
-
Broad departure another sign green hydrogen is not easy
- Editorial: the public must be told why Broad is gone
"In the minister's view, there were surprises that had occurred over the past few weeks, and months," Mr Knox said.
"There were basically things that occurred in the press that which were not pre-warned to the ministers. And therefore the ministers were unhappy about being surprised."
When asked what the ministers raised, he said the "tone" of conversations "from Snowy to the ministers was not as open and straightforward as it should have been".
"It was not a particular incident, it was a series of incidents that really just revolved mostly around the tone of the conversations as much as their actual content."
When Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham asked whether Mr Broad was saying things the "minister didn't want to hear", Mr Knox said it was about not giving him "a heads-up" about things that were to appear in the media.
On the promised $700 million funding to the Kurri turbine, Senator Hughes said Mr Bowen had potentially misled the parliament by "confidently" describing it in question time on October 27 as an "on-budget matter", when it was "not in the budget".
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