Jimah Power Substation

This week I am given a project in Port Dickson dealing with Power Performance Test.

The venue is the newly constructed, partially operated Jimah Power Plant.

Overview of Jimah Independent Power Plant.

The plant is currently co-managed by electrical specialists and most of the electrical technology inclusive of the GenSet, Transformers and Relay Protection Units are designed mainly by Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electrics.

Upon reaching the final phase of the project, they are now performing power and system evaluation.

So just before the hand-over, a group of Japanese performance engineers have arrived to test run the station with various load tests. I am assigned to the team under the supervision of its lead engineer Kawamura san for the data acquisition role in the Control Relay Room.

This is where I work - a Control Relay Room. It is mounted with Control and Protection panels. Above shown is one of a kind for PQ2 Bus Bars.



This is the main control panel for PQ2. Load test will be carried out in the GenSet site, while I will be pulling data related to the power factor from this control panel.



500kV Power Quality Panel. Performance Engineer will use this panel to monitor the power harmonics, unbalanced voltage and total voltage/current distortion. It is also my job to make sure that this system works by logging the power factor every 10 minutes for 24/7.



Site view from the Control Relay Room that I am working in. Beside is a step-up transformer.



A closer view of this giant Mitsubishi Transformer standing at 25 metres high.



A giant Step-Up Transformer is connected to the site pylons in 3 phase wiring system.






The 500kV supply is then fetch to these bus held by the site pylons before it is distributed to other pylons by means of cables.



More Pylons



The electricity is later bused to other pylons to be distributed for various uses.



I saw this gigantic monster beside the canteen - Coal Conveying Machine. I thought I could only see this in Discovery Channel. Cool...!!!

Overall comment: Not bad at all working in power station. It might be dangerous when dealing with high voltage source. But if safety measure is taken seriously, the job could be interesting and educational. Looking forward for the next assignment as such, if there is any.

Circuit Breaker Explosion

Finally something that I try to prevent from happening has occurred before me – a Circuit Breaker exploded!

Our engineering team was scheduled to do a Site Acceptance Test (SAT) on the motors with a supply of 415V. As a safety protocol, a Circuit Breaker (CB) is installed to make sure that if any overloaded situation such as current surge occurs, the Breaker can end the power supply immediately to protect the rest of the electric drives from getting burned.

My boss initiated the test by switching on the CB while I was by his side taking down some values from the meter for analysis. Shortly after the switch was pushed, CB was on as the current flowed smoothly. As we were about to walk away from the CB to the back of the panel to control the motor from the VDS, the CB suddenly exploded.

It freaked me out as I was barely 5 feet away when I heard the thundering ram. The next thing I saw was smoke coming out from the panel. Without hesitating, my boss and I rapidly shutted down the main incoming power supply to prevent further damage to the CB.

Man, I have never sweat that much before in my job. The current job doesn’t compromise carelessness. Any fault can easily kill anyone working on or in the vicinity of the switchgear panel. The consequences either you get fried into ashes or simply blasted into pieces.

No wonder my boss always tells me to maintain high level of awareness and discipline while dealing with the subordinate workers who work on site. It is important to understand that I am not only answering to myself but to the victims when accidents caused by carelessness happen.

I am glad that I am alive and still in one piece.

So, need I say more? Safety comes first!

方大同 - Sing along song

Introducing Khalil Fong, a new star arises in Asia.

He is a music composer and producer. Very talented in Blues and Jazz music.

Here is "Sing along Song". Let's sing along.

Wei Lan - My Cookie Can

Came across this song from Wei Lan - My Cookie Can.

Though the lyrics is not really fantastic but I love the melody. It's definitely the song to play on a long drive back from work.

Site Inspection and FAT in Semenyih

A week of commence for my first project which I didn’t expect to take.
The project site sits in a middle of a jungle in Semenyih. Its main function is to process the solid waste produced daily to useful energy to assist TNB to generate power for industrial and household use.

The termination and commissioning time for the overall power system came in so sudden. I still remember that my boss just received this deadline a week ago from his main contractor. Since it is our customer’s request, we have to fulfil what our customer wants.

Site visit helps to educate me from what I have read in the project documents passed down to me. I have a chance to experience the Field Acceptance Test for the functional motors.

To supply power to them, we need to first bring up the Circuit Breakers for the power surge / short circuit protection. Now we come to the most important part of the procedure - to switch on the Circuit Breaker (Fig.1).


Fig. 1 Switch Board.

Some of us might think that turning on the breaker is like switching on a light. Right? Wrong...!!!

It nearly freaked me and my other colleagues out when my boss attempted to power on the breaker. Once the switch is moved to the ON position, the magnetic circuit immediately attracts a steel bar to connect the high voltage circuit. And due to the dust collected on the Bus Bar (Fig.1), all of us witnessed a huge electrical sparks.

Full of sweat, I was told later that this is normal. Imagine touching a 22kV(live) Bus Bar, I will turn into dust in a matter of minutes. I really feel a bit nervous with my job now. Adding to a few stories of my colleagues getting electrocuted for several times, I am still yet to recover from a slight trauma.

Apart from the danger of high voltage devices, the construction site condition is also a threat to the workers there.

Just check out the few pictures that I have taken below. The platform (white) is only 1.5 feet wide. One mistake and I will land straight to the ground from 2nd floor.


Fig. 2 Narrow walk way with a hole beside.


Fig. 3 Closer look of the hole. SWEAT!

Man really pray hard that I survive through out the commissioning period.

Till then, sign off from Puchong.

7th day of work

I have finally passed my 7th day of work. I must admit that working on this job is not an easy task.

So far, apart from swallowing loads of electrical facts and drawings, I have visited various sites which I will be working in very soon after my training session.
There are a few projects in hand at the moment. Out of the potential 4, I have 2 which will boost up my experience from the ground right up just like a rocket blasting to the air. My bosses do not really look forward to a slow and steady take off. To them, only by forcing me to utilise my capabilities to the max, I would perform better.

And today I just got an update about my new job scope. I didn’t know from the beginning that after installing and commissioning the SCADA system for our customers, I still need to follow up with a list of trainings for the personnel involved for the monitoring and maintenance team. Just because of this, my boss bought me to TNB, purposely to show me the way to conduct trainings.

To sum up the training for today, one word…SWEAT! Picture myself getting bombarded with technical questions from the experience engineers and senior management…Alright…I think I will just stop here or else I will just carry this forward endlessly.

Tough job often means work that is so hard to implement that you need overtime and a bossy superior to guide you toward the accomplishment of your task. That sounds like an equation for a science freak. To work on the math out of this equation will often cause young engineers to sigh in depress.

It definitely means a tough job to me. But by subtracting the mean boss out of the equation, I am getting good food as a reward for a couple of nights since the first day of work. Seeing that I am not entitled to overtime allowance, my two bosses often buy me lunch and dinner in return for my hard work. To even dine in TGI's Friday, to be honest I would never indulge myself to the food there and I have clearly remembered to have done so only once in Penang with my parents. So after all, not bad for the tough job that falls at my feet. Mind not the pain, but the food...lol...

That’s it for the update for now. Hoping for more exciting hand-on jobs that I can write down to as a historical log in the future. And not forgotten about the snookering session my bosses invited me to. Will post some picture on that on the next entry. Till then, work hard.

First day of work in Puchong

A long anticipated time has arrived. The first day of work, as expected, is relatively light and easy.

The initially work for me is to run through some paper works such as the project documents and the layouts of the electrical design for the control systems. But later I found out the laptop given to me was not able to boot up properly. Without any solutions to assist me to run the OS in the normal way, it left me with the only method – reformat the OS.

After receiving the nod from my boss, I started off to reboot from the Microsoft OS disc. The configuration and installation of the necessary programs took me 5 and a half hour to get my laptop ready for work. The engineering programs occupied most of my time in the process of installation. Due to the incompatibility of the some engineering software built on the Windows platform, I need to fix the problem manually in the System32 kernel folder. So basically, my first day of work is spent on getting my laptop to operate. I was briefed on my projects only after I put the laptop back to life.

I feel a bit pressured now having to get involved in 2 major projects – Petronas Methanol Plant ENMC and Bank Negara Communication System. The biggest challenge for me would have to be learning in the shortest time frame for the project application. As a newbie in this field, to kick start is difficult as the inertia will tend to prevent me from moving forward. However, once I pick the speed, the momentum will give me the boost to flow faster. Now I will rely on GOD’s strength to carry me on my demanding job.

Small thoughts:
So how strong is GOD that He is able to meet our needs? In Numbers 11, Moses questioned GOD for His ability to provide his people (approx. 600,000 heads) with food for the whole month after they departed from Egypt. The LORD answered in verse 23: “Is the LORD’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” Doubts in GOD’s ability will aggravate our trust in Him. To worsen the case, the monotomy of the daily routine lulls us into forgetting how powerful GOD can be. So take our time off to be with GOD and we will discover that His strength is always available.

My return to Malaysia for a year

Today marks the 1st anniversary of me returning to Malaysia.

It also commemorates the first day of my arrival in Puchong - which is the place I will start working tomorrow.

It's so sad that I have to leave my parents once again due to work this time. Can't describe how i feel when I saw my dad for the last time before I went. He was speechless seeing me leaving and i knew it's hard for him to face this. As usual, he hid his face from me as he went on shedding tears in the living room.

It was the same day last year when i had to part with my friends in Leeds. I cried so much in the boarding room and led the attention to the rest of the passengers. At that moment, I didn't mind the shame crying in front of so many people anymore. The only thing that's in my mind was the picture of wonderful moments I spent with my friends - especially those from the Church. After the crying stopped, my mind went blank again and anxiety took over. I was so afraid that I might not be able cope with the life in Malaysia. And the main issue is how would I lead my spiritual life from then on. But praise the LORD, His grace is always upon me that I managed to live the life with happiness despite a difficult career seeking process.

Time really flies. One whole year had passed. And I am moving into a new phase of life. Really hope that GOD will continue to guide me in this new job and help me to get inspired and to inspire those around me. To those who have prayed for me and helped me along the way, thanks very much. My prayer will be with you too. Praise be with the LORD.