South32 sues Siemens over alleged software flaw

South32 Aluminium is suing Siemens after a steam turbine generator overheated and was “effectively destroyed”, allegedly owing to missing code in a programmable logic controller.

The case, filed in late 2021, stems from an October 2015 incident at a power station in Worsley, Western Australia, where, South32 alleges, a steam turbine generator “overheated during operation” and “was effectively destroyed as a result.”

Worsley Alumina is an integrated bauxite mining and alumina refining operation in Western Australia's south west.

South32 alleges its post-incident investigation revealed that a programmable logic controller for the generator was “missing a critical piece of code”, according to a Federal Court judgment published late last week.

“That code, had it been included and working correctly, would have automatically triggered the generator circuit breaker and prevented [the generator] from overheating,” the judgment states, summarising South32’s claims.

South32 has taken issue with Siemens over whether appropriate testing was completed as documented, and alleged the vendor failed to identify the missing code during a subsequent software upgrade and safety inspection.

“In general terms, the nature of Siemens’s defence to several grounds is to the effect that, though it was contracted to perform the work in respect of which complaint is made, the work was carried out by SIT [Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery],” the judgment summarises.

“It [Siemens] says it is not responsible for the actions of that separate corporate entity in relation to the non-contractual causes of action.”

The judgment describing the incident dealt with a procedural issue in the case that arose when the miner attempted to access documents from Siemens under an information-gathering phase of the court proceedings known as ‘discovery’.

Siemens had been resisting turning over documents and emails, arguing they were not in its direct “control” because they belonged to a different corporate entity - Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, now known as Siemens Energy.

Federal Court Justice Roger Derrington admonished Siemens for paying “insufficient attention … to the discovery process and to its obligations”, ordered the company to produce the documents and emails, and to pay South32’s costs for the application.

Siemens has until May 8 to produce the documents, according to the orders [pdf].