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Perak to be top power producer
IPOH, May 22:
PERAK will soon be largest electricity power producing state in Peninsular Malaysia, said Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) Janamanjung managing director Shamsul Ahmad today.
He said the Stesen Janakuasa Sultan Azlan Shah power station in Manjung will soon add two new 1,000MW coal-fired power plants.
Currently, the three 700 MW units which are Manjung 1, 2 and 3 – serving six million consumers.
The two additions, Manjung 4 and Manjung 5 will be powered by ultra superior technology that is expected to increase the efficiency of the plants by 40% – reducing coal usage by 3%.
That may translate to potential savings of RM12 million in operational costs, said Shamsul, with savings of almost RM120, 000 tonnes per year in terms of coal usage.
“This would mean that less coal will be consumed per year. If the coal price hovers around US$100 (RM322) per tonne, that will be a reduction in costs as well as emission levels.”
Shamsul said that Perak will be a major electricity contributor to the country when the two plants are completed.
“We’re ahead of schedule, with Manjung 4 almost 97.3% completed and in the commissioning stage at the moment before it opens in March 2015.” Manjung 5 is scheduled to be completed by 2017.
The TNB Janamanjung power station is 2,100MW coal-fired station built on a 325 ha reclaimed island near Seri Manjung.
“It is a big facility with total assets worth almost RM12 billion. It’s also critical asset to the nation as 20% of the country’s energy emanates from this plant,” said Shamsul.
“It is also one of the stations which run with the least costs.”
Shamsul added that the plant also acts as a catalyst for growth and provides employment opportunities for the locals.
While acknowledging the importance of the Janamanjung power plants in the country, Shamsul said that there were no plans for a Manjung 6 or 7 in the near horizon.
“It will depend on the Energy Commission. Even though, there is space in Manjung for another plant, we may not want to have one area supply 6,000–7,000MW of power.
“Should anything happen to the plant, it will cause ripples through the entire peninsula-wide power transmission system.”
Asked about recent unscheduled outages that have happened within the country, he said power plants do break down due to various reasons such as wear and tear and aging.
“We have been performing well. For the past few years, our unscheduled outages is only 2% and that can be considered world class performance.
“The day that it happened in May 2013, two of our units went down because of the water contamination. But we came back quickly. We were down on 6th but by the 8th, we were back.
“Things that are going to happen will happen. We didn’t expect it but I’m glad we quickly rebounded.
“It is the same in any power plant in the world. I can’t say that it will not happen again.
“I’m not going to play God because we live in an imperfect world. It’s akin to Murphy Law – things that are going to happen will happen.”
He said the company would take the relevant steps to rectify these problems from occurring again such as putting in place risk management and business continuity processes.
“We do it every year but because of the incident, we have accelerated the review instead of waiting. We also plan to do it more regularly and start looking at other avenues.”