Who is Stanwell Corporation?

  • Stanwell is a Queensland Government-owned energy business.
  • Stanwell is an electricity generator. We own and operate Stanwell Power Station west of Rockhampton, the Tarong power stations and Meandu Mine near Kingaroy, and Mica Creek Power Station near Mount Isa. 
  • Our people work hard every day to generate electricity to keep the lights on in Queensland and power jobs and industry.
  • We have a retail business which sells electricity to large commercial and industrial customers in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. Stanwell also earns revenue through the international sale of coal.
  • Stanwell has contributed strongly to Queensland’s economic growth over decades through job creation and investment and powering industry.
  • Stanwell employs 700 direct employees, 400 indirect employees (Meandu Mine), and a number of contractors who provide support for site services and unit outages. 

Who has launched the class action and why?

  • In January 2021, Piper Alderman launched a class action against Stanwell and another Queensland Government-owned energy company, CS Energy.
  • Piper Alderman is alleging Stanwell and CS Energy misused their market power to influence wholesale electricity prices.
  • The class action is being funded by a litigation funder.
  • Class actions are often lengthy, complex and costly.

How has Stanwell responded to these allegations?

  • Stanwell strongly refutes these allegations and is vigorously defending them in Court.
  • Stanwell has never behaved in an anti-competitive way. It has always acted in the best interests of its customers and complies with the rules of the National Electricity Market.
  • The National Electricity Market rules are rigorously monitored and enforced by the independent Australian Energy Regulator (AER).
  • At no stage has the AER found Stanwell to have breached market rules.

Read our class action fact sheet