During the one hour period of the energy conservation initiative (8.30 pm - 9.30 pm) TNB staff were extra vigilant in case any untoward operational difficulty occurs.

“Everything went on very smoothly and we were able to respond to the slightly lower demand without any operational glitch,” said Che Khalib.

Demand peaked up almost rapidly at 9.30 pm to follow the normal Saturday evening demand pattern, he said.

“While this minor fall in demand will result in a slight shaving of our revenues, we accept that Earth Hour is for a good cause,” added Che Khalib.

“TNB, as the national electricity corporation, is committed towards ensuring a quality and reliable electricity supply at all time. As such, TNB will not be switching off operations during Earth Hour’s “lights off” period running from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. During the period, we have our staff to be on standby to provide all assistance required” said TNB President/Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Sri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh.

Noting that some segments of TNB’s customers are not clear about this global initiative, he said, “Some appear to assume that power supply will not be made available during the one hour period.

 ”We have received numerous calls from concerned customers enquiring whether electricity supply will be turned off this Saturday,” said Dato’ Sri Che Khalib.

 He also said that as a corporation that cares for the environment, TNB supports Earth Hour program. “It is in line with TNB’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy and TNB’s continuous calls for energy conservation.”

About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is an annual event which began in Sydney in 2007. Created by the World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund (WWF), it calls for households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

About Tenaga Nasional Berhad
TNB’s core activities are in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. In addition to being the nation’s primary electricity generation enterprise, TNB also transmits and distributes all the electricity in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Federal Territory of Labuan. As at 31 August 2008, TNB supplies electricity to approximately 7.3 million customers.

 TNB, through its subsidiaries, is also involved in the manufacturing of transformers, high voltage switchgears and cables; the provider of professional consultancy services, construction and operating and maintenance of district cooling facilities, generation equipment, repair and maintenance, fuel supply services; services related to renewable energy, energy efficiency and power quality; higher education and skill training and undertakes research and development.

As an integrated electricity provider, TNB has and will continue to meet its crucial role in powering the nation’s progress.

For further information, please visit www.tnb.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Even a giant utility company like Tenaga Nasional Berhad can be environmentally friendly.Senior vice-president (corporate affairs) Datuk Abd Razak Abdul Majid says: “TNB, which supports Earth Hour, has always shown the way for generation of power and conservation to coexist handsomely.

“An example is our Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz power station in Kapar, which is coal-fired. As we use low sulphur coal, the amount of sulphur-dioxide emitted is negligible. It is a gentle giant belching neither smoke nor soot. It has impressed ecologists and environmentalists.” Razak says besides meeting strict emission regulations, the power station has also become a meeting ground for birds.

He says more than 10,000 birds, mostly migratory, seek sanctuary at the station’s settling ponds. The fenced settling ponds, teeming with fish, are located along a stretch of coastline buttressed by thick mangrove forests and tidal mud flats.

Thousands of plovers, herons, sandpipers and egrets converge there to rest and to roost.

Razak says TNB also works closely with the Department of Environment for constant online monitoring of the Manjung power station in Perak.

“As a result, the mangrove forests surrounding the plant are thriving as well as activities such as cockle and prawn breeding.”

Razak adds that TNB has ceased its oil-fired power station operations in Port Dickson, and replaced it with combined cycle gas-fired stations, which are cleaner.

All of TNB ’s power plants, says Razak, are environmentally sustainable as the company spends about 15 per cent of its plant construction costs to set up environmental mitigation auxiliaries, such as desuiphurisation units and electrostatic precipitators to absorb dust.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 (Bernama) - Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) gains nothing at all from the drop in oil price, said its president and chief executive, Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh.

Also correcting any perception that TNB used oil to generate electricity power, he said: “We use coal, gas and hydro power to generate electricity for the country.”

Che Khalib said this said during a recent interview on Bernama TV’s 1konsumer@bernamatv programme which discussed the topic of electricity and consumers.

Even during the time when the price of oil had shot up to US$150 a barrel, gas was sold at below market price to TNB compared with the much higher price of gas in the world market then, he said.

The gas price was RM14.31 per mmbtu for TNB.

This price is still much lower than the world market price now, he said.

“Therefore, when people ask why when the price of oil has come down and gas price has not, it is because the price of gas being sold to TNB is already a government subsidised price even if it had been raised from RM6.40 in July last year.

“To bring it further down from RM14.31 will mean the government has to give even more subsidy.

“It is up to the government. It is not the problem of market price. It is a question of how much more subsidy the government wants to give,” he said.

Che Khalib said TNB used natural gas to generate electricity power in the peninsular and Sabah, drawn from indigenous reserve.

As for the price of coal, Che Khalib said during the fixing of tariff last July, the government had fixed coal price at US$75 per metric ton (pmt).

“It was fixed at that price although the price of coal at that time was going up drastically reaching US$150 pmt in November last year,” he said.

“However, because we are a GLC (government linked company), the government can decide on the policy and ask us to use the price of coal at US$75 although its market price at that time was much higher.”

He also said while the price of coal has eased since, it has not come down below the price of US$75.

Commenting on a news report that said TNB was not being sensitive by increasing its tariff, Che Kalib said consumers should also understand that TNB had to also make payments to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

If the prices of all three, namely gas, coal and IPPs do not come down, there is no way the tariff can be brought down, he said, adding that TNB still had to pay a high cost for production.

The business for TNB is also the same, it the cost is not recovered, then it will be seeing losses just like any other business, he said.

On the issue of TNB’s monopoly, Che Khalib said a company which is profit oriented cannot be the supplier of electricity power to a country.

He said in the 1980s and 90s, many countries had taken the initiative to break the monopoly on electricity supply such as the US, UK, Europe and Australia.

“They broke up power generation, transmission and distribution to be supplied by different companies to cut cost….

Now they have gone back to the single service provider, he said.

They found that the electricity tariff went up much higher after 20 years and the results were opposite to what they had anticipated.

“TNB is a public utility company. TNB is a GLC that not only thinks of income but it also has social responsibilities, to fulfill the initiatives and policies of the government to help consumers,” he added.

– BERNAMA

http://bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=386270

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) — Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is committed to supply electricity eventhough the tariff is among the lowest in the world, says president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh.

“We will ensure continued power supply, minimise power outages and attend to power disruptions as soon as possible,” he told 1konsumer@bernamatv. when discussing the topic entitled “Electricity and Consumers.”

He said the country’s infrastructure was the best when compared to some neighbouring countries and advanced nations.

“We’ve been categorised as among the countries that provide the best power supply,” he said.

He, however, sought consumers’ understanding that the power supply system needs to be maintained and upgraded to ensure the system could cope with the rising demand for power supply.

“To carry out all these, we need financial resources.

The source of finance is only through tariff. If we don’t receive adequate funds, TNB needs to cut down on expenditures on maintenance or upgrading the system.

“We cannot expand our infrastructures. In the long term, it is the consumers who will be affected. We will be providing unstable power supply and consumers have to contend with frequent power outages.

“TNB has to do this balancing act.

“We don’t want to burden our consumers. That is the last thing we want to do. I hope consumers will also understand TNB’s situation.

“TNB does not want to raise power tariffs to its whims and fancies and not understand consumers current predicament. We need enough funds to maintain our system so that consumers will get guaranteed power supply,” he said. Nevertheless, Che Khalib assured consumers power outages would be minimised in all sectors this year and the years ahead.

“We understand our responsibility to ensure zero power outage but it is quite impossible to achieve the target. We try to minimise outages,” he said.

Che Khalib said TNB had drawn up several programmes including changing the maintenance method of its equipment from “corrective maintenance” to “preventive maintenance.”

“This is important. We will ensure our equipment are serviced and maintained on schedule as recommended by suppliers so that we don’t wait until the equipment fails. We will do the maintenance before that.

Che Khalib also gave an assurance power supply would be provided for new housing and industrial areas at the right time.

Acknowledging that the problem occurred previously, he said: “We’ve given our commitment to the government and the relevant agencies that we will provide the power supply required at the right time.”

We’ve addressed the problem,” he added.

– BERNAMA

http://bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=386044

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 (Bernama) — Industries may receive electricity tariff incentives from the government to reduce their burden and enable them to carry on operations in the midst of the global economic slump.

The government, Tenaga Nasional and related parties are in active discussions on this matter.

“Studies are underway to determine how we can help them, including providing incentives to reduce their burden,” said the president/chief executive officer of Tenaga Nasional, Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh to 1konsumer@bernamatv recently.

He was speaking on the topic, “Electricity and Consumers”.

He hoped that the government would be able to announce soon, a package for the industries to assist them.

“The announcement may be soon.We are actively discussing to find a solution,” Che Khalib said.

For the domestic sector, Che Khalib said almost 60 percent of users in this category fell under a monthly user tariff of 200kw per hour, where there had been no increase in tariffs over the past 10 years.

“Sixty percent of the people in this country are not from the lower income group. According to statistics, only about 20 percent are and usage is in the range of RM40 monthly.

“We cannot view a problem on an adhoc basis. We need to see it in its totality as it has specific implications such as the gas subsidy by the government and such. It is being studied.

“For the moment, we are thinking of the industries first so as to not disrupt their operations,” he said.

He also said that domestic consumers were receiving a subsidy not just from Tenaga Nasional but the government as well.

“In drafting the tariffs previously, we took into account the important segments in the country. If everyone wanted a subsidy in terms of tariffs, not just Tenaga Nasional but also the government cannot afford it,” he explained.

– BERNAMA

Kemelut TNB Lebih Sukar – Utusan Malaysia, 9 Disember 2008

KEWANGAN
“Ekonomi Negara kita akan menguncup tahun depan, tetapi tidaklah sampai berlaku kemelesetan, keadaan ini memberi kesan kepada TNB kerana permintaan tenaga elektrik akan berkurangan”

TARIF
“Bagaimana hendak kita turunkan tarif elektrik jika kosnya masih tinggi? Kita telah menyerap semua kos tambahan dan akibatnya suku terakhir sebelum ini, kita alami kerugian”

TIDAK CEKAP
”Sekiranya TNB tidak diurus dengan cekap, saya rasa sudah lama TNB hadapi masalah”

IPP
”Kita tidak boleh anggap rundingan semula PPA sebagai TNB lawan dengan IPP, jika TNB berjaya bukan maknanya TNB atau Che Khalib menang tetapi pengguna”

NUKLEAR
”Kita telah menghantar beberapa orang anggota kerja kita ke universiti di Amerika Syarikat dan Korea untuk belajar tentang teknologi nuklear ini”Please click on this link to download the pdf newspaper article.
Wawancara CEO dengan Utusan Malaysia

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) telah menerima satu pengiktarafan peringkat antarabangsa dengan dengan tersenarainya TNB dalam  Platts Top 250 Company 2008.  Majlis pengiktirafan peringkat Asia/Australia telah diadakan di sebuah hotel terkemuka di Singapura pada 20 Oktober, 2008 yang lalu.

Anugerah ini disampaikan kepada syarikat yang telah menunjukkan prestasi yang cemerlang dari segi kewangan dan pengurusan, manakala proses penilaian adalah berdasarkan formula khas yang ditentukan oleh Platts.  Mengikut ranking 2008, TNB berada di ranking ke 100 dari senarai 250 syarikat tenaga terkemuka di dunia. Kedudukan ini mendahului beberapa syarikat di negara-negara maju seperti Esso  Saf, France (102), Caltex Australia (106), United Utilities, U.K (120), EGL Switzerland (171), El Paso Corp. USA (177) dan lain-lain lagi.  

Di peringkat Asia/Australia pula, TNB berada di ranking ke 18 dari jumlah 59 syarikat-syarikat Asia dan Australia yang disenaraikan dalam Platts Top 250 Global Company 2008.  Kedudukan ini merupakan satu peningkatan yang tinggi berbanding ranking ke 32 (Tahun 2007) dan ke 43 (Tahun 2006).  Kedudukan terbaru ini juga turut mengatasi nama-nama besar di peringkat Asia/Australia seperti CLP Holding, Hong Kong (20), Caltex Australia (21), Tokyo Electric Power Co. Ltd, Japan (24), China Coal Energy, China (29), Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. Japan (40), Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. Japan (44) dan Hokkaido Electric Power Co. Japan (58). 

TNB telah diwakili oleh Dato’ Abdul Razak Majid, Naib Presiden Kanan Hal Ehwal Korporat TNB yang telah menerima plak pengiktirafan tersebut dari Encik Dan Tanz, Naib Presiden Platts.  

Majlis yang dianjurkan oleh Platt Global Energy Award yang berpengkalan di New York, Amerika Syarikat ini turut dihadiri Encik S. Iswaran, Menteri Kanan bagi Perdagangan dan Perindustrian Singapura, Ms Victoria Chu Pao, President Platts dan wakil-wakil syarikat tenaga di Asia dan Australia. 

Hasil daripada usaha TNB tersebut, 42,272 kes kecurian elektrik telah dikenalpasti semenjak tahun 2004. Daripada jumlah tersebut pula, sebanyak 2,304 notis tuntutan dan 390 saman telah dikeluarkan bagi mendapatkan jumlah tuntutan kehilangan tenaga atau kerugian oleh TNB. Di samping itu, 26 pendakwaan kes jenayah berhubung kecurian elektrik telah dibuat sejak tahun 2005 di bawah Akta Bekalan Elektrik 1990.

Pihak TNB telah menubuhkan pasukan untuk mengekang kehilangan tenaga secara aktif yang dikenali sebagai Special Engagement Against Losses (SEAL). Pasukan ini bertanggungjawab membuat semakan fizikal ke atas pemasangan jangka pengguna serta kerja-kerja pemasangan jangka dan pembaikan ke atas kejanggalan hasil dari semakan fizikal yang telah dibuat. Terdapat lebih 400 orang anggota kerja di dalam Pasukan SEAL ini dan mereka ditempatkan di seluruh Semenanjung Malaysia.

Pihak TNB juga telah melaksanakan projek Remote Metering Reading (RMR), di mana TNB menggunakan teknologi pemantauan secara jarak jauh dari sistem pembilan bulanan dan sistem perjangkaan di premis pengguna. Sistem ini dirancang akan dipasang pada kesemua pengguna-pengguna kuasa besar bagi kategori industri dan komersial TNB sebelum akhir tahun 2009. Setakat ini lebih kurang 35,000 premis pengguna kategori kuasa besar telah dipasang dengan sistem tersebut.

Berhubung dengan kenyataan media yang dibuat oleh GERAK semalam, pihak TNB merasakan bahawa kenyataan melulu atau dakwaan tersebut adalah tidak berasas sama sekali. Kenyataan bahawa TNB kerugian sebanyak RM1 bilion sebulan akibat kecurian elektrik adalah tidak munasabah, di mana angka tersebut adalah amat besar berbanding dengan hasil jualan elektrik bulanan TNB. Justeru itu, pihak TNB tidak teragak-agak untuk merujuk perkara ini dari segi perundangan bagi memastikan sama ada dakwaan tersebut boleh dianggap sebagai fitnah atau defamation. Pihak TNB juga kecewa bahawa GERAK sebelum ini tidak pernah mengemukakan sebarang aduan kepada pihak TNB berhubung perkara ini untuk disiasat atau diambil tindakan selanjutnya.

Pihak TNB percaya bahawa isu ini telah dibangkitkan oleh pemberi maklumat (informant) yang tidak berpuashati. Terdapat kes-kes di mana maklumat telah diberikan tetapi siasatan masih perlu dijalankan oleh TNB bagi memastikan kesahihan maklumat yang diterima.

Pihak TNB telah dan pernah membuat pembayaran ganjaran kepada pemberi-pemberi maklumat. Ingin ditegaskan bahawa TNB hanya membuat pembayaran ganjaran kepada pemberi-pemberi maklumat yang sahih sahaja. Walau bagaimanapun, ingin dijelaskan bahawa pemberian ganjaran oleh TNB kepada pemberi-pemberi maklumat tidak diperuntukkan oleh undang-undang atau akta. Ianya merupakan inisiatif TNB sendiri bagi menggalakkan orang ramai untuk memberikan maklumat bagi membantu TNB menangani gejala kecurian elektrik yang berleluasa.

Di samping itu, pihak TNB menyeru kepada pihak GERAK untuk memberikan senarai nama kakitangan-kakitangan TNB yang mereka dakwa terlibat. Pihak TNB tidak akan bertolak ansur dengan sebarang salahlaku sebegini di kalangan warga kerjanya. TNB sentiasa memantau masalah ini dan pelbagai usaha telah dilaksanakan bagi tujuan tersebut. Misalnya, pihak TNB baru-baru ini telah melancarkan prosidur whistle-blowing information system dan talian bebas tol (1-800-888-862) bagi menyeru pihak awam untuk memberikan sebarang maklumat sekiranya berlaku salahlaku atau penyelewengan oleh kakitangan TNB.

Pihak TNB meminta agar GERAK memberikan bukti-bukti kukuh mengenai penyelewengan seperti yang didakwa untuk pihak TNB mengambil tindakan selanjutnya. TNB kecewa terhadap tuduhan yang dibuat boleh menjejaskan imej serta krediliti syarikat. TNB juga ingin menjemput serta mengalu-alukan GERAK untuk berbincang dengan pihak TNB berhubung perkara ini.

TNB juga ingin menegaskan bahawa kecurian elektrik adalah merupakan satu kesalahan jenayah yang boleh disabit dengan hukuman penjara dan / atau denda seperti yang tertakluk di dalam Akta Bekalan Elektrik 1990 dan meminta orangramai supaya segera melaporkan kes-kes kecurian elektrik kepada TNB untuk tindakan selanjutnya.