A day in the office or 'gua' as we call it

Note: Sorry a little long. Just my nature to bit@h about work.

People keep asking me what I do in TNB. In previous years I would have loved to explain and feel proud about it. Not now though cause it sounds great and important but being treated like crap takes its toll you know. So here is a little on what I do so that it will be easier for others to refer.

I am a Power Grid System Operator working in the National Load Despatch Center (classified as national security center class 1 - but my wife used to walk in dilly dally without a problem) . Its like the flight tower controller but for an electrical power grid. I control operations of the whole transmission and generation of Peninsular Malaysia. Me and 2 others in a shift - 1 of them is the boss and gets away without doing anything which most of them normally do. Yes only 3 people are watching the country at any given time comparing to scores in other countries like Thailand and Indonesia (which is my main concern).

But small blackouts are not under my jurisdiction (for those who keep calling me - kadang2 rumah sendiri nya MCB trip pun blame me). If the whole big area like a city or state yes you can call me. Actually you will be lucky to get hold of me either way. Responsibility and stress is high as anything under the sun that happens electrically in real time bears down on our shoulders. I mean this literally. I have experienced emergencies consisting of explosions, fire, earth quakes, land slides, Jelly fish (Philippines had a national blackout due to this), robbery shootings, terrorist threat and even elephants amok damaging the substations. Unfortunately and very sad it even involves lost of lives.

Making sure continuous supply/connectivity and restoring blackouts arent as easy as I would wish mainly cause electricity can not be stored like water or gas therefore have to be transmitted through long distances in real time and is highly dangerous. A few minutes of electricity disruption has major consequences comparing to communication (TM/celcom/maxis), water or other utilities. Just go ask Namewee here.


So to add to my pathetic work life... VIPs keep coming to our place. I have seen Ministers, Kementerian Keselamatan big dogs, Energy Commission, TNB Board Directors (In the above pics), CEO, SVP, VP and so forth walking in (normally during shitty days - to know the crisis or something important). All TNB power plants put it in the KPI to visit us (but they cant walk in anymore but watch us through a windowed glass - just like in the zoo). This is the platform they normally show their dissatisfaction. All regional transmission people come too to go through our interview to get their competant and authorization person cert. This is when they get to meet the people that instructs them everyday (kalau tak puas hati tu, boleh cam muka lah)


Here is another pic of the most hated thing I have to do everyday. Watch the alarms. Alarms are great to make us aware of the health of the grid. But once you get an alarm every freaking minute and 95% is sh!t you get really annoyed. But once you miss one, you'll get shot down like you just fu@ked the ministers daughter. In this particular pick it showed a important cable tripping Brickfield to Pantai. A big cunk of KL was on the line at the time.

In this pic, as you can see there are a lot of people around. I am the one in the front computer under "whats going on?". To tell you the truth, I was doing 95% of the work while the others were doing 5%. This also pisses me off the most (everything the most lah). Another bad thing was that I knew what to do but given the circumstances nowadays (big scapegoat game) I wouldnt want to take the blame alone if anything went wrong. Thats why i called the GM to be beside me. So that every step I wanted to make I asked his 'ok'. I learned to never be a hero.. you'll never get a reward anyways. Sad right, the integrity of the electrical grid is the receiving end of this stick.

This scenario occurs every other day and you might think I am exaggerating but I asure you that I am not. Just ask the people in the same boat as I am.