Water disruption solution in the works

Current-ly busy: TNB employees working on a phasor measurement unit at Bukit Badong.

KUALA SELANGOR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) and water treatment companies will find ways to prevent a repeat of lengthy water supply disruptions when electrical substations are shut down for urgent maintenance work.

TNB chief engineer (operation and maintenance) Ishak Mohamad Zain said TNB and all related parties would meet soon to discuss the matter.

“After the shutdown at the Bukit Badong substation today (Monday), TNB and all related parties will sit down together to identify and implement improvements, so that a similar incident will not happen in the future,” he told a media briefing at the substation located in Ijok here yesterday.

An estimated 3.9 million households and businesses in the Klang Valley have been hit with water supply disruptions that started yesterday and which could last until Saturday.

The water supply cuts are due to urgent maintenance work being done at the Bukit Badong substation.

The substation provides electricity to three water treatment plants at Sungai Selangor, which in turn supplies 70% of the treated water in the Klang Valley.

Upgrading work on the substation in Kuala Selangor was supposed to kick off on Sept 27 but was postponed.

Ishak said that preventive maintenance work and the installation of the arc protection system being done at the Bukit Badong substation was on schedule.

The 16-hour task started at 8am yesterday and was 60% completed seven hours later.

Ishak said the maintenance, being done by 120 TNB employees, looks set to be completed after midnight.

He said the urgent maintenance work was needed following the discovery of “hotspots”, or increases in temperature, at the Bukit Badong substation that required immediate attention.

Further delaying the maintenance work could result in a “flashover”, where a high-voltage electric short circuit occurs through the air between exposed conductors.

A flashover would require up to four weeks to repair, he explained.

Ishak said 70% of the electricity produced at the Bukit Badong substation was channelled to the three water treatment plants along Sungai Selangor. The remaining 30% is for use by residents and businesses in the area.

The shutdown of the substation did not affect electricity supply to areas served by the substation as there were backup generators in place.

The voltage capacity of the mobile generators, are, however, incompatible with the voltage requirements of the three treatment plants.

The Bukit Badong substation has been in operation for about 20 years and undergoes maintenance every three years.

Ishak said that previous maintenance work on the substation did not result in water supply disruptions.

“This is because the demand for treated water from the treatment plants then was not as high as at present,” he said.