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. =)

SAVR

Yesterday, I went straight to the TNB Stor to work. I met the other trainees who are from Polytechnic - Wani, Ashraf and Dennish. I learnt that it was the last day for Wani and Dennish to be in SAVR (Saluran Atas Voltan Rendah) and Ashraf in the Pencawang (Substation) section. Since the Pencawang gang had already gone out without calling any of us, we decided to join the SAVR gang out. After all, we might be able to learn something instead of sitting around doing nothing right?We went to Trong for there was a case of a lamp post being hit by a lorry.

We found that the wire for the street light had been disconnected. Hence, one of the technicians connected the wire back.

The one in the black masking tape is where the wire was connected.

We set up cones to warn the other road users that we were doing something and to be careful.
Since the cables fell to the ground, we had to pull it back up.

Cable is on the ground

A trainee went up there to make the necessary adjustments to pull the cables up.

The other trainees tried pulling the cables up using a set of ropes that was tied to the cable.

But they only managed to pull the cables up to that height and it was tough because of the friction at the top of the pillar.

Then they tied the rope to the lorry and used the lorry to pull the cables up. Once it was done, the technician went to secure the connections at the top of the pillar.

We did the same thing for the next pillar, where the cables were connected to it. Once we were done, we headed down to Batu Hampar for there were reports made that a cable was disconnected from the pillar.

Saw the disconnected part on the left?

Cables fallen to the ground

Then we pulled the cables back up to the pillar and secured the connection there. After that, we went to other places with the similar reports and did the same thing.

Got back to the stor by 5.45pm. Good experience for the day! =)

SEMS

On 20 April 2010, it was my first day in the Senggaran Pencawang/SAVR department. (19 April is a public holiday for Perak). I reported myself to Encik Othman bin Che Mat, the Head of Department first thing in the morning. Since it was a bit too late for me to get to the TNB Stor, he told me to stay in the office to help him make some new SEMS files for this year. SEMS is Safety Excellence Management System.

Basically what I was supposed to do was to make copies of section headers from the current files.

Then I transfer the original copies to the new files and put in the photostated copies back into the old files.

The new file

The old file

I had to do the same thing for 4 other files. The total number of files I had to do was 8, but since only 5 files were provided, that means I have 3 files remaining to do.

The SEMS room is a room to store files for audits. It is similar to the room in BN back in UNITEN where various files are kept for the auditors to come and audit the work that has been done.

The SEMS room

At least I had some work to do in the office that day and it wasnt that boring. =)

CT meter

Yesterday (14 April), I got the opportunity to observe how wiring is done in a CT (Current Terminal) meter board. I followed Amir to the TNB Stor and En. Zol came in and did the wiring.

MK6N Genius : This type of meter is specially for CT. From what I learnt from Amir, this meter has current specifications, such as 100A, 150 A etc. It depends on what the consumers request. For example, a consumer applies for 150A. If the current usage exceeds 150A, the meter will be damaged and the consumer will be charged with penalty. This meter has several display functions. It could display kWh, current, voltage and kW, to name a few.

Front part of the meter board

Back part of the meter board

The wiring is done at the back part

After the wiring is done, it is now time to install the meter.

This is how the meter board looks like when it is done.

Then we went to Taman Pengkalan Maju to the place where we were supposed to install the meter board.

This is how the meter board is fixed.

The black components the hands are holding are the current terminals. This is where the supply comes in. Can see the 3-phase cables. There are some wiring to be done here too.

En. Zol did the wiring on the meter board.

After all the necessary wiring had been done, Nasrizan installed the fuses in the substation to supply electricity to the place we were at. Then En. Zol put in the fuses onto the meter board and the meter is up and running.

By the time we finished, it was past 6pm. Yesterday's experience was indeed an eye-opener for me and I come to realise that there are a lot of things to be done, just to install a CT meter for a consumer.

2 more days before I leave the department.

Electricity Meters

Starting from last Wednesday(7 April 2010) till now, I followed Uncle Xavier out in the morning to install electricity meters. He gave me a task to do which is to write down the serial numbers and the test dates of the new electric meters. We went to various places in Taiping, mostly in the southern part. There is another meter installer in the department, Mr Choo, who is in charge of installing electric meters in the northern part of Taiping.

I am sure most of us have seen this type of meter (below figure) before installed in our houses. This type of meter is easily tampered by consumers by stopping the rotating disk. The rotating disk determines how many turns equivalent to 1kWh. There are consumers who do not want to pay a lot to TNB, and thus tamper the device by putting stones or other things that could slow down the rotating disk. That is why this type of meter is not preferred to be used anymore.

Hence, a new type of meter is manufactured. Below is the Phoenix Series 2 and PRI Sprint for one-phase and 3-phase respectively. As you can see, there is no way for the consumers to open the device and tamper with it. Now, TNB is installing these 2 new electricity meters for consumers who apply for electricity supply.

Phoenix 2 Series for single phase : It has 4 terminals. Since it is only single phase, it has only phase terminal and neutral terminal. Both phase and neutral terminals have two wires connected to each of them, the incoming and outgoing wires.

PRI Sprint for 3-phase : It has 8 terminals, whereby 6 terminals are used for the 3-phase incoming and outgoing wires and 2 terminals for the neutral incoming and outgoing wires.

This is basically what I do in this department every morning, and I will be doing this till this coming Friday. This Friday will be my last day in the Metering and Services department before I move on to Senggaran Pencawang/SAVR next week.

Fieldwork

Went early to the office. Even though it's just 7.45am, some of the staff were already there on Level 4.

There is a new trainee from ILSAS in the department I am in. Both of us followed Encik Nasrizan out to get some components for TNB contractors from the TNB store in Jalan Haiwan. Then we went to Kampung Rahmat where we observed the contractors installing 2 new electric poles.

A hole as deep as 4 feet is dug to plant the pole. An electric pole is 7.5m in height and 1.1 m in circumference (small one)

How they put the pole into the hole

After the pole is upright and steady, it's time to connect the wires to the main power supply.

This pole is the main supply. There are a few wires connected to it.

After lunch, I went back to the office and asked around for some work to do. That was when Amir started printing a stack of papers and brought it to the cubicle I was sitting. It was the customers' details and he brought another stack of customers' application forms for electricity and asked me to find the correct match of the printed papers and the forms. A few minutes later, he came by my place and asked whether I would want to follow him to check on a breakdown case in Taman Sg. Mas. I decided to follow him.

We went to the substation there and met En. Wahab and 3 other people from Fault Finder team. They started testing for short circuit in the substations around the area because they wanted to know what is the cause that caused the breakdown. By 5.40pm, one of the guys from Fault Finder said they were going back to the office to get something and offered me a lift back to the office. Fault Finder team testing for short circuit.

It made me realised the actual work that is being done when a breakdown occurs, who are the people involved in it. It takes a long time to find what the fault is sometimes.

2nd day of training: Nice fieldwork. =)

Next Phase

1st day of Industrial Training.
Place : TNB, Taiping [Near my house. Just walk down from my house and there's the office =)]

Supposed to have morning talk at 8am but apparently it was cancelled. So I guess I have to introduce myself next Monday.

Got my schedule for the whole 3 months. I will be going from department to department for at least 2 weeks in each department.

The 1st department is Metering and Service (Penjangkaan dan Servis). The Head Of Department is Pn. Noor Azita. I reported to her after lunch since she was not in in the morning. Since the group of people went out to install electricity meters early in the morning before I came to the department, I stayed in the office, helping out a colleague, Mr Amiruddin, who's kind enough to explain to me what the department does and I offered to help him with his paperwork, since his desk was full with papers. There were datas to be keyed in, mostly on the installation of electricity meters for customers.

I met Mr. Wong, an engineer and the HOD of Planning (Perancang) Unit, which I will be going there for my last two weeks of training. He wants me to do a research on Power Quality and to present to him at the end of my training. A challenge, I would say, but nevertheless, doable.

Tomorrow I will be going out to install electricity meters and in order to do so, I have to reach the office by 7.45am.

1st day at work: Not too bad, I guess. =)