Powering up to meet electricity demand

Mohamad Fazli and state education, information and communication committee chairman Norliza Noh visiting the water pump room at LRA Lok Heng in Kota Tinggi.

EIGHT power processing units (PPU) under Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) will be completed this year as part of the Johor government’s plan to provide sustainable electricity supply in the state.

Johor works, transportation, and infrastructure committee chairman Mohamad Fazli Mohamad Salleh said the eight projects would involve rehabilitation, substation construction and improvements to the high-voltage system, with a total cost of RM224.3mil.

“The eight projects are expected to be completed this year and will benefit 178,500 users,” he told reporters after visiting the Lok Heng water treatment plant (LRA) in Kota Tinggi.

The eight PPUs are Penawar (Kota Tinggi), Southern Industrial Logistics Cluster (SILC) 2 (Iskandar Puteri), Tongkang Pechah (Batu Pahat), Taman Nusantara (Gelang Patah), Senai Industrial Area (Kulai) and the main intake substations in Tampoi, Kulai and Mersing.

In a related matter, Mohamad Fazli said three LRA projects in Lok Heng, Air Panas C in Segamat and Layang 2 in Johor Baru were temporarily activated to meet demand for water supply during Hari Raya Aidilfitri which involved more than 400,000 users.

“LRA Lok Heng was supposed to be completed in June this year, LRA Air Panas C in August and LRA Layang 2 in November but we decided to temporarily activate them based on the increase in water usage during Raya.”

LRA Lok Heng, which has a capacity of 10 million litres per day (MLD), would temporarily supply 9 MLD, LRA Air Panas C with 17 MLD and LRA Layang 2 with 80 MLD, he said.

“We have also identified around 2,800 accounts that are often affected by low water pressure during the holiday season and prepared a mitigation plan that included sending water tankers and static water tanks to areas when needed,” he added.

Twenty-eight water tankers were prepared in Batu Pahat, Kluang, Mersing and Pontian, with 275 static tanks in various locations all over the state as well as 19 portable water tanks and 11 generators in case of a power trip in the main LRAs, said Mohamad Fazli.