TNB Lodges Police Report Over Tower Collapse
02/08/2007
TNB has lodged a police report over an incident in which a newly constructed transmission tower has collapsed near Kampung Lee Kim Sai, Rawang. The residential area is located near Kampung Sungai Terentang. Police investigation is still being carried out to establish the actual cause of the incident. However, the company is not ruling out sabotage as a possible reason for the tower collapse. The tower at Kampung Lee Kim Sai that collapsed at 9.15am on Tuesday, 24 July 2007 due to temporary tower backstay wires giving way, causing the tower to collapse towards the monsoon drain. Backstay wires are used as a structure support system in transmission tower construction work. In this particular case, the backstay wires were a temporary measure as only one side of the wire-stringing for this tower has been completed. The stringing work of the other side is pending due to objection from Kg Sg Terentang residents. There were no reports of injury or major property damage caused by this tower collapse. However, two backstay wires came loose and one was later found to be resting against the side mirror of a private vehicle. The other one came to stop on the roof of a car-repair workshop located within the vicinity of the incident. TNB wishes to assure the public that the construction of the CAR (Central Area Reinforcement) project is carried out according to approved specification and safety procedures. The CAR project has objectives of upgrading the 33kV transmission lines from Bt Tarek to Chubadak to 275 kV transmission lines. The CAR Project is an urgent priority for TNB and the nation as its immediate completion is necessary to ensure TNB can continue to provide quality and reliable power supply to the country, especially to the Klang Valley. Prior to the Kg Lee Kim Sai tower collapse, the last incident where a transmission tower collapsed was in October 2005. The 275 kV transmission tower connected Pasir Gudang to Permas Jaya, in Johor. The cause for the collapse was identified as theft, where a joint plate connecting the tower’s metal panels was found missing. The oldest towers in the country connects transmission lines from Kalumpang to Woh, Cameron Highlands in the state of Pahang. They were built in 1963 and are currently still in operation. TNB through its Transmission Division is responsible for the power transmission supply to the entire Malaysian peninsular via the National Grid, which spans over 8,000 kilometers in total length. The Division also manages the maintenance of over 24,000 transmission towers built within the Grid. TNB Transmission’s Asset Maintenance Department exists to ensure the company’s transmission equipment is maintained in effective operation. The core objective of this department is to optimize the lifetime performance of transmission network assets in terms of reliability, availibility and cost efficiency. Among the responsibilities of this particular department include the management of rentice, asset condition monitoring and asset enhancement. In the Klang Valley alone, there are about 5,000 transmission towers. The CAR project will see the erection of over 300 towers connecting 110 kilometers of transmission lines. The length from Chubadak to Bt Tarek spans 60 kilometers, while the length from Port Klang to Bukit Raja spans 50 kilometers.