Sabah power blackout due to Shutdown of 4 turbines by IPP

It's good that Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) has finally came out with a media briefing regarding the state-wide blackout on January 17, 2014. People have been speculating about why and what caused the second massive blackout in 2 years. The previous one was on April 30, 2012.

The slight delay did not help the utility in putting a stop to allegations after allegations from many quarters, some to the point of slandering. Just navigate to the 'News' dropdown menu in the SESB website and you will see I meant. For me, I prefer to wait and get the full pictures from SESB's own press release like the one in 2012.

One of the power plants belonging to Ranhill, located in Teluk Salut. Source: RPSB pdf

IPP to blame for the blackout?

From what was reported today by the local dailies, it seem the blame is on the Independent Power Producer's (IPP). Well it depends on how you look at it.

If one day you find your tap went dry, who will you blame? The Water Department? The water concessionaires who manage the water supply for the department? The Operators who operate the treatment plant? The broken-down pumps? Where does the blame-game stop? Someone has to take the responsibility, or, the blame if you like.

SESB was quoted by Daily Express as saying that the IPP's decision to shut down its gas turbines for safety reasons caused the massive power failure in Sabah and Labuan on that fateful day.


Why and how it happened

Preliminary findings revealed by SESB on Wednesday were that Ranhill's power plant decided to shut down the gas turbines after encountering a technical problem, causing power to fluctuate and trip.

IPP informed SESB that its "diverter damper", the door which covers the gas connection from the turbines to power up a steam turbine at the plant, could not be shut. Out of fear as smoke was continuously coming out from the plant, they decided to shut down the two gas turbines.

In the report, Managing Director Abdul Razak Sallim said the blackout episode could be divided into two events, (1) being a residual overcurrent protection at 10.30am where power was stabilised and (2) a sharp drop in power transmission at 11.11am.

He said in the first event, power generation had stabilised to 633MW, while demand stood at 585.1MW with an excess margin of 48.5MW.

But in the second event which caused the total blackout, power generation stood only at 525MW, while demand remained at 585MW, causing a margin deficiency of (-) 60MW, the problem of which was traced to the Ranhill Power Plant.


SESB not in a position to compensate consumers

The blackout is reported to have left the utility firm with about RM2 million in losses. While it affected more than 500,000 consumers statewide, SESB said it is also a victim of circumstances, and still operating in the red.

So, SESB cannot offer a discount nor reduce the newly-revised tariff as demanded by an opposition Assemblywoman, Christina Liew who earlier said SESB should give a 30 per cent discount.


What's next

A task force committee will, among others, determine whether the issue had been caused by technical or human error. The detailed report would be forwarded to the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry to decide whether to launch an elaborate investigation.

Will Ranhill Power Plant risk a revocation of its licence by the Energy Commission?

"Under the Electric Supply Act 1994 all licenses to IPPs are issued by the Commission, if there are situations where the IPPs can assist supply in times of crisis and had received instructions to do so, but did not do it, their licences can be revoked." - Energy Commission West Coast Areas Director Nazlin Ab Alim Sidiri


The way forward for SESB as to what I understand from my readings:

• For SESB, TNB and Energy Commission to work together to strengthen its 21 fail-safe system and other efforts to ensure there will be no repeat of a total blackout.

• For the government to continuously provide allocations (and perhaps allocate more now) to set up a redundancy system or a back-up power line that can serve as a back-up when the main cables are down to improve the State's System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI).

TheGreenMechanics: Two state-wide blackouts in a span of less than 2 years is not good a statistics at all. Not good at all! But in this particular case, SESB can't be totally blamed; to certain extent their hands are also tied with regards to control over the many IPPs in the state.

That said, for the sake of making good what has been pledged to the people, the government, especially the federal government, which has more grip on the parent company, TNB, must take some drastic and bold decisions. If it is just fund you are talking about, then reprioritise!

We cannot just continue to say "This is Sabah, we have to live with it" and accept our fate as so!


Source:
Daily Express - read here
Bernama - read here
Free Malaysia Today - read here

Focus group to address power woes in Sabah

This is a move that should give you a bit of a reason to cheer up. The government will form a focus group to monitor and advise on the implementation of electricity supply projects in Sabah.

It's essentially a committee that will report to the Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister on matters relating to the planning and implementation of electricity supply projects in the state.

Composition of the focus group:

• Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid - Chairman
• Energy Commission representative
• Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) representative 
• Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) representatives
• 7 Barisan Nasional backbenchers from component parties in Sabah.

The terms of reference (TOR) of the focus group:

• to monitor closely the development and implementation of power generation, transmission and distribution projects, particularly those approved under the Tenth Malaysia Plan, 
• to study the electricity tariff,
• to look at SESB’s turnaround.

The other agencies that will be involved include the Economic Planning Unit and Public Private Cooperation Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department, Finance Ministry, Infrastructure Division of the Rural and Regional Development Ministry, Sabah State Economic Planning Unit and Sustainable Energy Development Authority.

“The government is committed to addressing the electricity woes in Sabah and the formation of the focus group will step up the efforts.”
- Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili

The minister said various measures would be in place within the next three years, which are expected to ensure sufficient electricity supply for Sabah for the next decade.


Sabah's current electricity supply status

Sabah’s installed electricity capacity is at 1,344MW and available capacity is about 1,100MW while demand is at 870 to 950MW, with a reserve of between 20 MW and 100 MW. The available capacity is lower than the installed capacity due to contingency for planned power outage and forced outage.


TheGreenMechanics' 2 cents:
I agree with the notion that, for us to address Sabah’s electricity woes, every party has to cooperate and be rational. While the rakyat can cooperate by willing to wait and stretching their patience to the limit, those given the power/trust to manage the situation would also need to show urgency.

AND for once, please avoid giving excuses when you cannot fulfill pledges.

More readings here.

10-year plan to address blackouts in Sabah

Frustrated people post in their social network page that every month there are 10 to 20 blackouts in their area of residence and this has been happening for many, many years already.

With several power plants due for operations in a couple of years' time, it should take the Federal Government less than 10 years to fully address this issue, no matter how complicated the situation at SESB is.


10 years is way too long, but 'some plan' is better than nothing! Newspaper clipping - DE, 17-7-2013.


What we hear more often is that IPPs in the West Coast are having hard time maintaining their equipment, and Power Plants in the East Coast are delaying the full commissioning/operations of their long-delayed-temporarily-installed generators.

So, the assurance that "any financial requirement would be approved, if justified" is much welcomed! Come on, you guys!

: :       : :       : :       : :       : :       : :       : :

Energy Minister says 10 years is needed to tackle perennial power failure issues in Sabah

Kota Kinabalu: The Federal Government has set a goal to address Sabah's infamous blackouts within the next 10 years, said Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.

He said the Prime Minister had directed him to solve the problem in Sabah and that any financial requirement would be approved, if justified.

The tariff collection by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) was only sufficient to cover 80 per cent of its operational cost and the rest was being subsidised by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), he said. "But for how long can this go on?" he said at the breaking of fast with the media and orphans in Promenade Hotel here Tuesday.

Power seepage, according to him was about one per cent in Semenanjung but in Sabah it was about two per cent which translated to about RM50 million being lost.

Dr Ongkili said the Federal Government had been doing its best to reduce the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) in Sabah and had spent about half a billion ringgit in the past three years for the purpose.

In Sabah's case, he said the issue of power generation, transmission and distribution must be addressed in order to reduce Saidi.

For power generation, he said the Federal Government had to re-strategise its planning when the proposed coal-fired power plant project in Lahad Datu was scrapped after seven years of debate.

Among the issues that needed to be addressed to improve distribution of power was the fact that about 80 per cent of Sabah's cables being open cables are not coated, meaning it might take just one curious bird landing on the power cable to cause a major power disruption.

- Source: http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=86117

Worst blackout in history - Over 600 million people in India affected

Nation-wide blackout, affected more than half the population.

A familiar news to you? I bet my money you won't be totally surprised (although perhaps totally annoyed) by what happened in India yesterday.

This was the worst blackout in the second most populous nation's history involving more than half the country, as an electrical grid collapse in 14 states - then spread to a total 19. The incident deprived more than 600 million people of power. Some journalists put the figure as 620 to 670million people.


Massive traffic jam in New Delhi, following a power outage (one of the world's worst) that spread over half of India, July 31, 2012. Photo: AP/Rajest Kumar Singh


It is that bad, but how bad?

If you live in Sabah, Malaysia, you will understand how it feels to be deprived of power supply on a frequent basis. Recently in April 2012, we experienced a state-wide blackout for almost the whole day and in some areas, power was only restored completely the next day.

One hour of blackout is bad. What more with going through the day in total darkness; and added to that, a bonus of another half a day during the next.

In India's case, many were still without power on the second day. The blackout, one of the largest in global history by the number of people affected, dramatically underlined the concerns industry leaders have raised for years — that the nation's horribly inefficient power sector is dragging on the economy and could undermine India's longer-term ambition to become an industrialised nation.


What caused the blackout?

The power grid collapsed because some states apparently drew more power than they were authorised to do to meet the rising demand during the summer.

According to NDTV, the blackout was allegedly triggered after four states - Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan drew much more than their assigned share of power. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have denied they exceeded their limit, though. Uttar Pradesh is said to over-drew its quota from the Northern Grid by 1200 MW, nearly a third of what a city like Delhi is entitled to in a day.

Blackouts are a frequent occurrence in many Indian cities because of shortage of power supply and an old-fashioned electricity grid. Too bad, this the common excuse/explanation offered by the power utilities everywhere. That's us included.


And its implication?

Nothing!

There is no need to even look at 'what would its implication be' unless people start looking at the underlying problems/issues, such as what the New York Times reported:

[...] For a country considered a rising economic power, Blackout Tuesday — which came only a day after another major power failure — was an embarrassing reminder of the intractable problems still plaguing India: inadequate infrastructure, a crippling power shortage and, many critics say, a yawning absence of governmental action and leadership.

India’s coalition government, already battered for its stewardship of a wobbling economy, again found itself on the defensive, as top ministers could not definitively explain what had caused the grid failure or why it had happened on consecutive days. Theories for the extraordinarily extensive blackout across much of northern India included excessive demands placed on the grid from certain regions, due in part to low monsoon rains that forced farmers to pump more water to their fields, and the less plausible possibility that large solar flares had set off a failure.

By Tuesday evening, power had been restored in most regions, and many people in major cities barely noticed the disruption, because localized blackouts are so common that many businesses, hospitals, offices and middle-class homes are equipped with backup diesel fuel generators.
“This is a huge failure,” said Prakash Javadekar, a spokesman for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. “It is a management failure as well as a failure of policy. It is policy paralysis in the power sector.” [...]

Time to reflect

The situation and power supply issue in Malaysia, and particularly in Sabah is somewhat similar in the India case in the sense that we are facing shortage of supply and the generally antiquated electricity grid/equipment. We can always give excuses and say that we fare better when bench-marked against India but that would be more of a 'feel-good' kind of assessment rather than the absolute meaning of the word 'better'.

It's time to be firm and aggressive in dealing with power supply problems. Allocate more fund in the coming budget preparation as electricity is now a need rather than want.

Power outage: SESB vs SEB

I read with great interest a comment made by one of Daily Express readers published on July 22, 2012. If you still have your weekend copy, you can find it in the forum section.

A comparison was made on the two separate power outages in Sabah and Sarawak which happened in April 2012 and July 2012 respectively. It stresses the big gap in terms of how the situations were handled and of how much SESB is alleged to be lagging behind SEB. An interesting compilation is summarised as follow:

Daily Express, July 22

Just to clarify, SEB is Sarawak Energy Berhad, not as quoted, and it is the holding company that owns SESCO which generate, transmit, distribute and supply electricity throughout Sarawak. In a way, SEB is like TNB while SESB is like SESCO. But, leaving the organisational structure alone, every utility company has the same responsibility, that is to give the utmost care and service to its customers. After all what is quality if the bar on customer satisfaction is never reached.

I will leave it to you the readers to decipher the above information but to be fair to SESB, they did apologise promptly the next day during the 30 April 2012 massive power outage. The press release to offer the consumers thorough explanation was made much later and I suppose the writer was refering to this one when quoting '24 days after the event'.

Furthermore, 'Other event' should include a consequential load shedding excersice many hours after the initial 16-hours power outage on April 30. SESB was struggling to stabilise the power supply to a number of bigger consumers in the West Coast, particularly in Tuaran area. In our case there were places (end users) that had their power supply normalised (totally) the next day.


People can give explanation and choose to disagree, but from the comparison table, we can - without digging further - make some conclusions, or at least perception, among others:

1. Capacitive Voltage Transformers, CVT, contrary to what SESB mentioned in its press release, can cause little disruption to the supply of power.
2. We know that SESB is continuously upgrading its transmission/generation capacity, but we perceive here that compared to Sarawak and West Malaysia, it still has a lot to catch up.
3. Excess in power generated does not guarantee fail-safe operations. SESCO has ample safety margin in its power generation capacity but other factors will still cause outage. Note however, that they will have the luxury of better back up from other sources. Hence, the lesser power disruptions.
4. I have this nagging feeling that we in Sabah are 'fire fighting' rather than doing Planned Preventive Maintenance. The SEB case showed that we can carry out maintenance (unplanned emergency, or planned parts replacement) without putting the whole power network out of service. In other words, don't put the whole State without power just because of one small equipment failure.

A copy of the SESB press release pertaining to the massive power outage has been stored in this blog for future reference.

Let's hope for a blackout-free weekend ahead.


**UPDATE**: Responses by SESB as well as the general public - in the internet or print media - will be quoted/recorded in the Comment section. Do check it out.

Fancy a long Earth Hour this weekend?

There are few essential utility supplies you cannot afford to go without, such as:

1) water
2) gas
3) electricity

Or, should I rephrase the above and strike out electricity from the list, owing to the fact that electricity is not essential and its absence can be tolerated? Well, at least in this IT age, you shouldn't allow yourself to be deprived of these basic 'needs'. Needs because these are not merely 'wants' anymore.



SESB announcement posted on its website.


16 hours of blackout?

As far as schedule is concerned, many people will be without power supply tomorrow (June 23) beginning 10.00pm until 2.00pm the next day. That would be 16 long hours of blackout. And there goes my EURO football match between France and Spain! Affected areas include most parts of Putatan district, to part of old Papar road, to Kepayan including most parts of Penampang and Luyang, and the busy Karamunsing/Sadong Jaya in Kota Kinabalu.

But why 16 hours, and why the power cut in the middle of the night? Can we not do the maintenance works during daytime when people are not confined at home? This maybe acceptable thirty years ago but not today. Not anymore. You cannot just simply cut the power off and think that it is okay.

This is all about the tidak apa (it's okay) attitude some people are clinging on to. "It is okay to leave half of the city without power supply. It is okay if the services we provide is sub-standard. It's okay, people will soon forget about it." And the list goes on.


Be prepared to spend more and shorten the power interruption

Being the monopoly in the business, SESB should shoulder the social obligation to supply power with minimum interruption. Sixteen continuous hours is just unacceptable.

If the intended tasks permit it, break the job into several shorter hours. If it is not possible to be carried out in stages, then SESB must put a provision to deploy mobile generator sets to the affected areas. Quite surely, substations are equipped with the necessary switchgear to take-in power from sources other than transmission/distribution main.

This exercise is not cheap, and it may not be required or stated in the supply contract but you are morally and ethically obligated to do it.

I will be directly affected by this lengthy power supply shutdown and I am very disappointed by the way the utility company schedule its maintenance works.

HAVE A BLAST EVERYONE, AND ENJOY YOUR LONG EARTH HOURS TOMORROW!

SESB offers explaination on the 30 April 2012 total blackout

I would like to share what SESB explained in detail in one of the local dailies which is not made available in its website www.sesb.com.my. Some slight changes made on the text to simplify the article, but leaving the clarity and meaning intact.

Formally expressing its sincere apology, the company through its MD highlighted four significant aspects of the incident, namely:

1. What triggered the incident?
2. Why the 66kV Capacitive Voltage Transformer (CVT) failed?
3. Why it took a long time to restore supply in some areas?
4. The SAIDI figure integrity.

Typical 132kV main intake station (Pencawang Masuk Utama, PMU)

What triggered the incident?

The disruption to the supply system was initiated by a failure of a 66kV CVT at the Main Intake Station (PMU) Penampang at 3.23am. This had in turn caused cascading trippings to 2 of the anchor power stations in the West Coast totalling 290MW out of the 550MW load at the time of the incident. These had caused the relatively small capacity generating sets running in the East Coast at that time to experience overloading and their protection systems tripped them off also.

With the tripping of the 2 anchor power stations in the West Coast which represent >50% of the demand at the time of incident and the subsequent protective trippings of the small power stations in the East Coast had caused the Grid frequency to plunge to a critical level that eventually brought down the whole Grid, i.e. blackout. This is a standard fail-safe mechanism designed for any Grid operation to prevent more widespread damage to the other components under similar circumstances.


Why the 66kV CVT failed?

Having studied and analysed the event log available at the SESB State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC) in Penampang by the engineers from TNB and SESB, it was found out that the particular CVT had experienced an intermittent and transient over-voltage. Unfortunately the intermittent and transient over-voltage which occurred in milliseconds was not readily detectable as it is not a standard power utility practice to install a real time monitoring facility for this type of equipment even for some bigger power utility entities. This had therefore been diagnosed to be as the reason for the CVT failure.

For the record, the failure of this particular CVT was the one and only incident in the 24 years of its installation. The CVT had been religiously maintained in accordance to the standard and mandatory requirement for such installation among which are:

i)   Last preventive maintenance, PPM: 2009 (5-yearly interval)
ii)  Last routine maintenance: 4 April 2012 (monthly)
iii) Last condition-based maintenance (thermo-scan and ultrasound): 9 March 2012 (6-monthly interval)

All the results from the latest maintenance activity as above had shown no anomalies. SESB also highlighted that the size of this CVT is of no significant relevance in the way it affects the Grid System operation because the manner in which an equipment failure affects the Grid System operation also depends on many other factors such as generation capacity, power transfer from one point to another within the Grid, generation balance within the Grid, the fault level it triggered and the generator assigned as the system frequency control at the time of incident besides not forgetting the exercise of a prudent economic despatch regime.

SESB said that it is definitely not an apple to apple comparison to say that the CVT to the Grid System operation is the same as a compass to a ship. It is more like a choked fuel filter on an engine of the ship which will cause the engine to stall and leaving the ship immobilised and stranded in the open seas until the engine is operational again.


Why it took a long time to restore supply in some areas?

As part of SESB's standard operating procedure, SOP, under such a situation, an established Emergency Response Plan (ERP) was immediately activated with the Managing Director or the Senior General manager (asset Management) being the Commander and the General Manager (System Operation) will act as the overall coordinator for the Grid System restoration.

Under such conditions the Grid Operation will be split into 6 independent islanding operations to facilitate safe, orderly and speedy restorations. The 6 'islands' are Patau, Pangi, Salut, Melawa, Sandakan and Tawau. This was what had been activated during the incident on the 30th April 2012. The extent in which supply restoration can be achieved in these separate independent islands depends primarily on the generation capacity compared to the load demands within the island.

If the generation capacity far exceeds the load demands then a safe, full and speedy restoration could be achieved. Conversely, the island in which the generation capacity is lower than the load demands, at best only partial restoration could be achieved in a safe manner. Full supply restoration could only be achieved once all the independent islands are safely connected to the Grid again with all identified generator achieved full and stable operations.

During the incident on 30th April, the first partial area restored was in Tawau at 4.20am, while the last 11kV feeder restored was in Balung, Tawau at 7.47pm. The main reason for the long delay to achieve full Grid operation was due to some of the generators had unfortunately not been able to achieve full, safe and stable operation faster. For this, a further analysis had been commissioned by both TNB and SESB engineers to ascertain the root cause which will also cover all aspect of generator start-up requirement such as, among others, auxiliary relay settings, gas supply conditions and gas to distillate change-over facilities on the relevant power stations, both which belongs to SESB and the IPPs.


The SAIDI figure integrity

Find out how to calculate SAIDI in my previous article.

SESB is required by Energy Commission Malaysia (EC), through regulatory compliance of one of the License Conditions, to submit reports on supply status on a daily basis. The actual official figure for SAIDI announced by SESB from time to time is that which had been endorsed by Energy Commission. Only EC can certify certain SAIDI figure to be officially taken as true number.

It should be noted that SAIDI is just one of the internationally accepted measure for electricity supply performance. Electricity supply performance is also the result of the existence of adequate basic infrastructure such as logistically balanced anchor generation sources and capacity, strong complete-loop transmission network as well as distribution infrastructure. Hence, highlighting the persistent efforts by SESB to implement projects in the East Coast to help create generating balance in the Grid System.


Prevention of recurrence of similar fault

To prevent future happenings of similar incident, SESB with the technical collaborations from experts in TNB had embarked to re-assess the network defence system to effectively and efficiently match the ever increasing demand in Sabah

Date published: 24th May 2012
Newspaper: Daily Express, Sabah

64 MW Kubota station to start operation in June 2012

The total blackout on 30 April 2012 is just one of the many power outages that Malaysians in Sabah have to endure. One of the many unresolved reasons for the frequent power supply interruption is the inadequate power generated by the utility.

Almost immediately after the massive blackout, SESB announced that, together with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), it is working hard to ensure the RM80 million Kubota power station in Tawau can start operating by June this year.

Tawau town (photo: malaysiasite.nl). Current power capacity is 64MW against peak demand of 80MW

64 Megawatts of instant power plant

The RM80 mil project consists of gas-fired turbine generator, with an installed capacity of 64MW and is expected to reduce the impact of power outages in Tawau especially if there were problems along the Sabah grid interconnection. Note that this interconnection is the only east-wast transmission lines that transmit power from west coast to Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu and the whole of the east coast.

As such, apart from higher generating capacity, this east-west grid is of tremendous importance to SESB, financially as well as keeping its reputation intact. 

Something's not right? The headline is correct about the 64MW plant.

The person in the pic is Ir. Baharin Din. Not Abdul Razak!

Peak demand/load for Tawau at the moment is 80MW and is expected to increase to 96MW by 2015. Compared with the current generating capacity of only 64MW, the town and its surroundings are in constant dependance of 'imported' power from west coast. SESB said that the east coast is importing between 16MW and 164MW of power from the west coast daily. This will be another challenge for the power utility to juggle between the two coasts. Old equipments and transmission lines certainly add to the possibility of frequent power disruptions.

It is not that importing power from the West Coast is a bad idea. But with its operations put to the higher limit, SESB is risking recurrence of major power failures as the supply become unstable with the safety margin being 'sucked' by the importing power network (in this case the East Coast).

Tawau is connected to the main grid, with transmission lines length of about 550km

Can we still get the power by June?

With the recent news saying that one of the barges containing equipment for the Kubota power plant has been hijacked by pirates, we are now less optimistic about the June deadline.

It was reported that only one shipment, Wantas, reached Tawau port in mid-May while the other barge, Wantas VII that was ferrying equipment including a gas turbine generator belonging to TNB-SESB was hijacked by pirates sometime mid-April.

It seems that the wait for more stable power supply is on, at least for now. End of the year seems more like it but I'm happy to be proven wrong!

How do you calculate SAIDI

SESB power supply reliability issues

Tomorrow is the final day for the English Premier League current season. If you love watching live football broadcast like I do, you wouldn't want another statewide blackout tomorrow at 11.00pm Malaysian time, or at any time for that matter. 

However, Sabah's SESB is notoriously known for power failure during crucial times. Reliability is not in their dictionary, they are far from being reliable.

Typical main intake substation (PMU): Do you think SESB is a reliable power provider?

Since SESB takes pride of itself for having improved SAIDI significantly, one would be interested to know if the lower SAIDI figure (lower is better) is translated into better quality in actual daily experience. SESB's past 6 years SAIDI record is as follows (source -SESB website):

2006 - 4,030 minutes per customer per year
2007 - 1,986
2008 - 1,855
2009 - 2,867
2010 - 687
2011 - 494
2012 - 362 (as at April)

Supposing the 2012 figure did not take into account the statewide power failures on 30 April - 1 May, this year's SAIDI could probably surpass the 2011 figure.

System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI)

This index measures the total duration of an interruption for the average customer during a given time period. This is the most often used performance measurement for a sustained interruption and is normally calculated on either monthly or yearly basis.

SAIDI calculation

To calculate SAIDI, each interruption during the time period is multiplied by the duration of the interruption to find the customer-minutes of interruption. The customer-minutes of all interruptions are then summed to determine the total customer-minutes. To find the SAIDI value, the customer-minutes are divided by the total customers served.

Formula:

SAIDI = Σ(r_{i *} N_i ) / N_T

where:
.
SAIDI  = System average interruption duration index, (minutes)
r_i          = Restoration time, (minutes)
N_i        = Total number of customers interrupted
N_T       = Total number of customers served


Example:

What is the SAIDI for 30th April and 1st May given the following data? 

Table 1 shows each power outage, the duration of the outage, and the customer-hours. As of August 2011, SESB has 456,406 customers.

Table 1: Calculating customer-hours:

Date	Time	Customers	Duration (minutes)		Customer-hours
April 30, 2012	03:23	456,000	0.33 hrs	or   20 min	151,985
April 30, 2012	03:23	100,000	8 hrs	or  600 min	800,000
April 30, 2012	03:23	10,000	13 hrs	or  300 min	130,000
May 1, 2012	12:05	60,000	2 hrs	or  120 min	120,000
					1,201,985

From the table, the first outage was at 3:23 in the morning and 456,000 (approx.) customers were out of service for 20 minutes (0.33 hours). The 20 minutes was based on the statement made by SESB that the utility started normalising supply in stages as early as 3.40am that day. 

From the Table, customer-hours = 456,000 * 0.3333     (for the first power outage on 30th April)
                                               = 151,985 hours

Total customer-hours                 = 1,201,985 hours or    
                                               = 72,119,088 customer-minutes


Therefore, SAIDI = 72,119,088 / 456,000
                         = 158 minutes

This means that the average customer was out for 158 minutes on the 30th April - 1st May 2012.


For Malaysians in Sabah, SAIDI tells nothing but a number

1) Lower SAIDI recorded in recent years look nice on paper but did little to a better power supply experience in general.

2) SESB sets SAIDI target of 600 minutes in 2012. Take for example these states in West Malaysia, they achieved SAIDI of less than 80 minutes per customer per year in 2011:

State	Target ( 2011 )	Achievement  (minutes per customer per year)
Sabah	700	494
Penang	99	76
Kelantan	75	72
Selangor	74	61
Johor	99	78

3) If you are living in Sabah, last year you would have experience 494 minutes of power outage, or slightly over 8 hours for the whole year. Take this year's 30th April statewide blackout into account and you are already more than 8 hours without power supply. Expect double of that figure by year end.

Parting shot: Who verify your figures?

We now know how SAIDI is calculated. What we need next is transparency in terms of data verification. Someone has to look into the utility's method of calculating it, just like what is done in financial audit or quality audit.

SESB massive power interruption in 2012

If you are residing in the West Coast of Sabah, you'd understand what 'lengthy power failure' means.

Wait, you don't have to. The East Coast is no different. In fact, of all the states in Malaysia, Sabah wins hands down when you talk about figures for SAIDI. Not that it is something good. Several power failure in a month or even week is not something extraordinary.


Power outage too often for comfort

We had business visitors from Singapore early this month (April) and while they were setting up the multimedia projector, the power supply suddenly act against them and died for a good couple of hours. The standby generator set for the building was good only for several power socket outlets and we were without lights and air-conditioners for the whole duration of the presentation.

30-April 2012 is another day to remember for the wrong reason as well. At about 3.00 o'clock in the morning most parts of Sabah West Coast went without power and several places lasted until late afternoon. The worst thing is you don't know what is being done by the power utility company and their customer complaint lines won't help either.


I did this:

Called 15454, and was told: "Sir, you are calling from Sabah, so, please call this number 088-515000.

Called 088-515000, the line was engaged. After several attempt, finally there was ringing tone but no one answered.

Called the number provided in their new website (088-088 282699 / 282500). The lady at the other end of the line politely redirected me to 15454 because 'this is a complaint on power supply interruption'.

Called 15454, knowing that this will be handled by TNB, thousand of km away from Sabah. The person again asked me to call the number above. I told her I'm calling to ask for other numbers to call as 088-515000 seem to be unresponsive and that I we have emergency situation back at the workplace. The person said there's no other numbers other than this. Alright, okay, I'm done.

Screenshot: SESB will be experiencing power shortage until the 60W IPP resumes operation.


Power supply shortage vs. outage

While not speculating on the reason/s for the massive power disruptions on April 30 and May 1, the snippet from SESB website tells us that the power utility is currently operating at peak capacity. As at August 2011 Sabah maximum demand, MD, is 830 MW. The SESB installed capacity from its own generators is about 490 MW. Although no official mention on the total installed capacity from IPPs, the effect of the 60 MW outage is significant and the utility company is living on the edge trying to supply power to the current load distribution.

It will come at no surprise if there are more disruptions between now and May 10, 2012 whereby the 60MW IPP resumes operations, and June 2012 when the new RM80mil., 64MW, Kubota power station in Tawau is commissioned.

In the meanwhile, let's hope that SESB keep the public informed on the progress of power supply restoration on a daily basis, so that we consumers can plan our daily routine. Their new website is a good place to disseminate the information.

How about the large consumers?

As for the large industrial and commercial consumers, it is only courteous on the part of SESB to inform them in writing of major interruptions such as this one, and it is best to give them estimate on the expected date of full normalisation of power supply.

Note that almost all of the larger consumers have standby generator sets and they too, have to plan for fuel purchases and inventory during the interruptions.


TheGreenMechanics' two cents:

Let's work even harder for better power! (SESB's tagline: Working Harder For Better Power)

Lastly, I'll quote the MD's message: "If not us, who? If not now, when?"