Connaught Bridge 200,000 EOH celebration

17/01/2007

TNB’s Connaught Bridge Power Station celebrates milestone in operational excellence with SIEMENS Malaysia - SIEMENS gas turbines breach 200 000 EOH after 23 years in operation - TNB Chairman attributes power station’s success to employees KLANG, 17 January 2007: The country’s oldest power station, TNB’s Connaught Bridge Power Station, celebrates its achievement of 200,000 Equivalent Operating Hours (EOH) on two SIEMENS branded V94.2 gas turbines today. The event is a significant achievement for TNB for its continuous service excellence and for SIEMENS, the maker of the turbines. Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communications Dato’ Shaziman Abu Mansor was the guest-of-honour of the event, which was held at the Connaught Bridge Power Station. The two SIEMENS gas turbines were commissioned in 1984, and they were the first land-based large capacity gas turbine units installed in the country. Previously, the turbines were operated in simple cycle mode. In May 1993, the two gas turbines were converted to operate on a combined cycle mode, working through two waste heat boilers to a steam turbine, producing an additional power of 105 MW each. In his speech at a celebratory event at Connaught Bridge today, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo Moggie, Chairman of Tenaga Nasional Berhad, attributed the success of the power station to its workforce. ‘Your achievement and commitment to quality culture practices and to continuous Improvements at the workplaces, have to date earned the power station many quality awards befitting it illustrious history, service and excellence’, he said to the staff of the station. Tan Sri Datuk Amar Leo also mentioned that the admirable performance of the two SIEMENS gas turbines was due to the continuous collaboration between the power station and SIEMENS Malaysia. Siemens Malaysia CEO, Rainer Althoff also recognized the event as a celebration of a longstanding partnership with Tenaga Nasional Berhad. In his congratulatory speech, Althoff said that he was looking forward to a continuous and fruitful partnership with the utility giant. The company pledged to continue to provide its best to Tenaga Nasional Berhad in order to ensure the performance continuity of its engineering machinery units. ‘Under the care of TNB, SIEMENS will always be there to look after them and ensure that the two will be at its top condition and admirable performance, always,’ said Althoff. The SIEMENS gas turbines are now in their 23rd year of operation and had previously achieved world’s shortest overhaul for 160 000 EOH, within 22 days. EOH is a technical unit used to describe the service life-span of a gas turbine. Built in the 1940s, Connaught Bridge is the first power station to be connected to the country’s National Grid. Named after the Malayan Railway crossing across the Klang River which ran beside the site of the station, Connaught Bridge is responsible for the generation and supply of electricity to areas within Klang Valley, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. Even after over 50 years in operation, the station continues to keep in constant move with changing times. Today, Connaught Bridge remains one of the country’s most efficiently-run power stations, producing clean and reliable electricity that is benchmarked at globally competitive standards.