10/5/2010 - 21/5/2010

The next department is the KENDALIAN department. I went to the Fault Finder's office on the 1st day in the new department. This is the place where we call TNB to report that we do not have electricity in our houses, that the streetlights outside our houses are not working etc etc.
Once a report is received, the Fault Finders team will head out to the location to investigate the matter. If it is a very small matter, then they will fix it, or else, they will have to ask the gangs of other departments concerned to fix it, such as the SAVR gang. The people in this department work in shifts. Therefore, there will be people in this office all the time. There are supervisors who receive reports from customers and they are the ones who assign the Fault Finders team according to their zones (North or South).

I spent roughly 4 days in this office, answering phone calls, attending to customers who dropped by the office and helped to key in complaint reports into the Excel worksheet. Then Saiful, a technician in the department, asked me to help him to type out the shutdown jobsheet and also the Notis Gangguan Bekalan for customers.

A shutdown is when TNB cuts off the electricity supply in substations for maintenance purposes or other work such as laying new underground cables.
A breakdown is when the electricity supply is cut off due to a tripped switch in the VCB or a fuse is blown in the substation.

I got the opportunity to follow En. Nasir to the PMU (Pencawang Masuk Utama) in Kamunting when there was a breakdown one day. This is where the electricity supply enters after the transmission towers.
PPU is Pencawang Pengambilan Utama. It is almost similar to PMU except that it is smaller in size.
Inside the PPU is a row of switches to designated locations.

While having lunch with En. Rizal, Saiful, the new engineer, En. Shukri and the other trainees in Tmn Medan Taiping, we heard a loud explosion at the construction site nearby. We went to the scene and saw that the construction workers had accidentally damaged the NEW underground cables. According to En. Rizal, the new underground cables were layed just a few months ago to a new position because of the construction of an overhead bridge over the railway tracks.

They used sand to get rid of the fire.

Instantly, the area nearby were affected because of this. Switching has to be done and electricity has to be supplied from other sources. One good thing with our electricity system is that we always have a backup supply from other sources. This supply is only temporary till the real problem is fixed. And so, En. Rizal went to the PMU Taiping no. 1 to do the switching.
Then we went to a few substations to give temporary supply to the consumers.

To check whether the cables are in good condition after a breakdown occurs, an IR (Insulation Resistance) test is done.

If the reading shows more than 100M ohms, then the cables are in good condition.

The HOD for Kendalian is En. Azhan. He told me he is a graduate from UNITEN in 2007.

The next department is Pembinaan (Construction) department.

1/5 - 7/5

In the SAVR (also known as Overhead) department, the work scope is mainly about pulling up fallen cables, fixing black boxes, fixing stay wires and anything that has to do with overhead cables that you see on the roadside.

In the SAVR office at the Stor, they have this board with all the equipments they use in their everyday work.


I followed the gang up to Maxwell Hill one day. We took the TNB Land Rover up the hill.

These are the equipments in the jeep.

The cable has fallen down.

As you can see, the cable has fallen down from the pillar.

The cable was pulled up to the pillar.

Fixing blackboxes and stay wires

The function of a stay wire is to keep the pillars upstraight and to prevent it from falling sideways.

First, dig a hole to put the parts in.

Close the hole.

Could you see the stay wire?

The thing that looks like a box is the black box.

I spent one week in the SAVR The next department is KENDALIAN department.

21/4 to 30/4/2010

I was in the Pencawang department, where I got to go out to substations to get a look of the components inside them, and also learn how electric supply is being transferred from one place to another.

There are 3 types of substations:
i) Indoor - The switchgear and transformer are inside.
ii) Outdoor - The switchgear and transformer are outside.


iii) Pencawang Atas Tiang (PAT) or H-pole in English - The transformer is on top of poles.

The number of poles required for a transformer to be placed in a PAT is dependent on the size of the transformer. For 100kVA and 300kVA transformers, 2 poles are needed, whereas 500kVA and 750kVA transformers, 4 poles are needed.

For the PAT, there are cables connecting directly to it and this has become a problem since trips occur frequently. There are animals who touch the cables and trips the VCB (Voltage Circuit Breaker) at the main substation. If it trips, then the other substations which receive supply from it will be down and the consumers in the area will experience blackouts.

Therefore, TNB is now working to get rid of the overhead cables which are connected directly to H-poles and implementing underground cables. I was in Kg. Cheh one fine day with En. Rizal (he's the foreman of this department) and the gang from Pembinaan section came to insulate the underground cables.

Slit open the cable

Tear off the copper.

Separate the cores inside the cable.The white strip is Earth.

Put in the insulators for each individual cables. As you can see, there are Red, Yellow, Blue and Neutral cables.

Use heat to shrink the insulators.

Almost done...

Put the cables inside a pipe and lean it against the PAT. Later the cables will be connected to the blackbox.

Since most of the substation maintenance work is done by contractors, one of the maintenance work done by TNB workers are painting the substation. We went to the PAT in Kg. Cheh 1 to do some maintenance work such as painting and changing the SAFETY Signboard. At the same time, SAVR gang was there to get rid of the overhead cables connecting directly to the PAT.

The Pencawang gang is painting.

The PAT looks brand new.

2 weeks in Pencawang and it's time to move on to SAVR. =)