www.my-township.com - MID-DAY BLACKOUT: 'It has happened. Should not have happened. Cannot happen.'

Hadi is not likely to find much sympathy among the one million TNB customers who were put out today by the blackout — the worst since September 2003, when a glitch during maintenance work plunged five States into darkness for several hours.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who had to adjourn the National Biodiversity Council meeting in Malacca, said tersely: "I hope TNB will make sure there will be no more blackouts."

Some people were trapped in lifts and snarled in lunchtime traffic, and the management of Idemitsu Chemicals, the Nitro motorcycle plant in Johor and a slew of other businesses were forced to shut for the day.

Malacca-based Infineon Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd said it lost one production shift as a result of the incident, an economic cost of RM5 million.

The Express Rail Link to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport was disrupted, as were light rail systems in the capital.

Elsewhere, emergency power supplies kicked in to keep the KLIA, hospitals and Bursa Malaysia running.

Abdullah was midway through the biodiversity meeting when the lights went out. He and the rest of the participants adjourned for a candle-lit lunch. Making light of eating in semi-darkness, he said: "Fortunately, the fish I ate had no bones."

Abdul Hadi was far less light-hearted.

He said that power was disrupted at 12.16pm, and within minutes Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor were left in the dark.

"There was a breakdown at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz power station in Kapar, Klang," Hadi said.

He could not say if an ongoing union-management deadlock or sabotage was the cause of the breakdown.

"Investigations are under way to ascertain what happened, how it happened and why it happened."

On what happened at Kapar, he said there had been a heavy transmission load and the busbar at the Kapar station tripped. The standby busbar did not operate.

(A "busbar" is an electrical conductor usually used to make a common connection between numerous circuits. At power station switchyards, generators and transformers, there are two busbars. Only one is operational at any one time. In the event of a "tripping", the standby is automatically triggered.)

Elaborating, Hadi said heavy loads were normal at that time of day, and supply was normally obtained from the Paka power station in Terengganu and another in the north.

"The additional load flow from the north and east would supply the entire Klang Valley and southern States."

The tripping at Kapar triggered a power supply downsurge at the Pudu Ulu and KL East (Batu Caves) transmission line centres, recording a power loss of 1,700MW.

"The whole supply line was affected, and this called for drastic measures," Hadi said.

He said that the national grid of "four islands" (North, Central, East and South) was affected, and to save the northern, central and eastern regions, load-shedding measures were automatically initiated.

"The south had to be taken out as supply along the whole line was affected," Hadi said.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik also asked for time to investigate what had happened. "I haven’t received a detailed report on the cause of the problem," he said.

"However, TNB engineers and the TNB head have promised me they are on top of the situation."
This was achieved by late evening.

source: New Straits Times 14-01-2005