Gas leak caused blackout last week: Tenaga
National power company Tenaga Nasional blamed a gas leak at a circuit breaker at Port Klang power station near here (KL) for the blackout in the city and four other states last week.
A bid to switch off the leaking circuit breaker for inspection also failed, resulting in overloading and the gradual tripping of the power grid in the southern states.
Fluctuating power in Johor even resulted in the state drawing power from Singapore's power grid, but the Republic had to eventually isolate itself from the Malaysian grid in order to prevent a blackout there as well.
Tenaga Nasional released the findings from the inital investigations to the local media yesterday.
Officals say the company's findings were similiar to those of independent consultant Advance Power Solution (APS).
Tenaga's chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohamed Noh indicated, however, that because power was restored promptly, it would not offer a widely expected rebate to affected consumers, especially businesses and factories.
"We have not received any claims so far. We will have discussions with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers and other parties to find a solution," he told reporters.
The national utility gave a 10 per cent rebate for two months to customers in 1996 after a peninsula - wide power outage plunged the country into darkness for more than 14 hours.
Under fire from the public and government leaders, Tenaga had been under pressure to offer something similiar this time.
Businesses and factories in highly industralised areas are still counting their losses a week after last Thursday's lunch - hour blackout.
Plants owned by national car company Proton and Honda were among those affected, as well as hundreds of factories owned multinationals throughout the city, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor... - Straits Times 21/01
Continued
A chemical plant in Johor and national oil company Petronas refinery in Malacca were shut down for up to three days.
Millions of ringgit and believed to have been lost because of the blackout although no offical estimate has been made yet.
Datuk Che Khalib defended Tenaga's response time to the blackout, saying most areas had power restored within 2.5 hours. Under guidelines set by the National Power Commission, the power utility is required to restore power within two hours for minor faults and 12 hours for a major fault.
"Our response time was well within the guidelines," Datuk Che Khalib said.
Despite the blackout, he said, independent consultant APS also found Tenaga's system to be more robust than those of most countries.
"Still a blackout is not impossible although this should be rare. Even the UK, US and Singapore have power disruptions," he said.
The utility chief said the completation of three new power plants in the Southern states in the next few years will hopefully prevent disruptions of such a large scale.
Many of Malaysia's power plants are now located in the less populated northern and eastern states.
Explaining last Thursday's blackout, Datuk Che Khalib said a gas leak was discovered by engineers at one of the two circuits breakers connecting busbars at Port Klang power station around 10am that day... - Straits Times 21/01/05
Continued
Engineers decided to switch off the leaking circuit breaker at lunch time because of lower power demand then. Another circuit breaker was expected to carry the additional load, but it tripped due to overloading.
Datuk Che Khalib said engineers are still investigating the inital gas leak and why the second circuit breaker tripped.
The company's senior management has ordered an inspection of all installations. - Straits Times 21/01/05
Well... It seems that if we provided them further, from a lesser supply... It may become a total blackout
Hmm... Now use us as a example, last time abt water, they say that they are trying to keep up with the tap water quality as in Singapore...