help, page-40

Bleasby,

Thanks for the insight, very useful. I had a vague idea but that was a good summary.

I wasn't suggesting Kogan Creek was in direct competition with Linc in terms of electricity markets - my point was that both Linc's plant and Kogan Creek were CS Energy JVs.

So it was not potential market competition between the two but rather an internal CS Energy decision. On the one hand, they had a technologically and financially risky project that could (maybe) generate 70MW. On the other, right next door, they had a tried-and-tested, cheap steam turbine on a known 100+ year coal resource capable of putting out 750MW.

Now consider that CS Energy, being government-owned, was primarily concerned with infrastructure and delivering electricity to Queensland, particularly with stations like Swanbank A shutting down, rather than maximising share price.

So CS Energy had solid business reasons not to proceed with Linc's 70MW plant as of 2002.

The situation in 2010 is clearly completely different and is not a valid comparison IMHO. This time Cougar is not relying on another company to handle the power plant part of the operation.