COMMENT Four million Klang Valley residents who looked up to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) to resolve the water woes on the eve of the Christmas season were let down.

Even TNB’s s chairperson Leo Moggie, who celebrates Christmas, was not spared when TNB could have extended a helping hand as the government’s Supply Act states that it must provide continuous electricity supply.

According to TNB, the failure for continuous supply was because their generator’s system is based on 11kV electrical power supply while the water treatment plants is based on 6.6kV.

“There was an issue of incompatibility for the mobile generators to provide electricity to the water treatment plants,” said the senior general manager of corporate affairs and communications, Mohd Aminuddin Mohd Amin, in reply to Malaysiankini’s query on why TNB could not help.

A consumer group leader clarified the Electricity Supply Act 1990 provides for supply of voltages at even 11kV and 6.6 kV, and when TNB was asked in written questions about such provisions, it declined to answer further on incompatibility.

The issue of voltage incompatibility can be resolved by using appropriately sized transformers and these are readily available in the market, according to electrical engineering experts who had once served in TNB.

TNB has generating sets and systems in other states supplying at 11kV and 6.6kV. Perak River Hydro is at 6.6kV in some places and in Johor these electrical generator sets are available. It is also available from the private sector.

Amongst others, an electrical engineering professor added that the maintenance work was in TNB’s substation and it should have been done proactively before breakdown signs start appearing in the TNB substation at the site. Agreed, the dates were postponed and it is not justified in the wake of new facts on TNB’s responsibility when it had all the infrastructure.

According to a former TNB engineer, TNB’s Repair and Maintenance Sdn Bhd (Remaco) could have carried out any modifications to make it compatible

One of Remaco’s services is to align all makes of generators and aligning the electrical generator sets (gensets) to supply to 6.6 kV or any other configurations.

Now the public are asking which agency shirked the responsibility of getting the appropriate equipment for continuous water supply?

Surprisingly, on Dec 18, TNB’s chief corporate officer Roslan Ab Rahman claimed that water authorities must take the initiative to upgrade their back-up gensets in order to avoid water supply disruption for electrical maintenance works in the future at the plants.

Another question is - did the National Water Commission (Span) play its role in ensuring water supply?

“Yes. Span had requested TNB to provide the mobile generator sets to generate power to the water treatment plant. However, the feedback given by TNB is that the mobile generating sets are incompatible with the water treatment plant voltage requirement,” said Span’s corporate communications and consumers affairs director Hisyam Samad in a written reply.

TNB as a public listed company with its engineering expertise and millions spent on corporate social responsibility was seen as allegedly not taking any initiative to help Air Selangor and Syabas. Was it Selangor that was being difficult?

Net profit jumped 192pct to RM2.31b

Nevertheless, TNB had an obligation by virtue of the regulatory Supply Act and its own subsidiary Remaco which could have helped. After all, it was the four million water consumers who are also electricity consumers who contributed to TNB’s profit declared last month.

Tenaga Nasional’s net profit jumped 192 percent to RM2. 31 billion in the third quarter ended May 31, 2016, from a year ago. There should be a mindset change among leadership to take people, planet and profit to sustain good business practices.

When new questions were posed to Air Selangor, its corporate communications replied by sending published articles and old press releases on the water cuts. This is a no-no in media relations as it displays laziness to draft answers to new questions.

According to TNB, the agreement was reached together by the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry secretary-general Dr Zaini Ujang with the Selangor Economy Planning Unit; the National Water Service Commission (Span); the Energy Commission, Selangor Water Management; Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor (Splash); and TNB.

Agreed it was a collective decision, but how could such a high-powered committee not rationalise and help Air Selangor’s four million consumers.

It is sad that such a high-powered public/private sector group lacked the will to prioritise the daily needs of the four million water customers who were left and high and dry.

The maintenance of the main intake substation was in the interest of water consumers and to ensure continuous water supply from water treatment plants, which needed electricity.

“It was the water companies, which are TNB’s customers, that requested for the work to be postponed from the original schedule of Sept 27. The water companies would have studied the water usage and they recommended the new date.

“As the maintenance was delayed, the situation had reached utmost urgency. During a weekly thermal scanning on Dec 15, TNB detected two hotspots. This pointed to the potential risk of a flashover with catastrophic consequences,” said Mohd Aminuddin.

He added in his statement that TNB did not skirt responsibility to provide back-up power supply when the substation was shut down. “In fact, customers (other than the water treatment plants) were supplied with electricity channeled through 28 mobile generator sets. I would like to stress that if we continue to delay the maintenance work at the substation beyond Dec 19, the situation could have been worse for water users.

“Three more hotspots were detected during our maintenance work. If a flashover occur, TNB would be forced to shut down the substation for up to three weeks compared with just 16 hours.”

Any responsible business should be a people-centric business. Four million consumers cannot be fooled any more as communities are impacted when leading organisations fail to decide what’s fair and just to the public.

The cardinal rule is that when millions are affected, leaders will be blamed for the politics, profit and poor management of a water crisis.

Before the government bulldozes through any decision in future, it must have the people in mind and in this case it was disaster for four million people who will remember four days of announced water cuts.

M KRISHNAMOORTHY worked as a junior officer in TNB’s head office from 1969 to 1979. On his return from the United States after his studies in 1983, he worked with NST and The Star for 25 years. He now freelances for international TV networks and newspapers and is also a media relations trainer.