TNB negligence may have led to Bertam Valley flood, claims engineer
(MM) – Dharm Pal Singh, who worked at the Cameron Highlands hydro scheme between 1992 and 1994, said it would take only minutes to clean the intake screen at the Sultan Abu Bakar hydroelectric dam reservoir.
A former Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) senior civil maintenance engineer has hinted at negligence on the part of the electricity utility, leading to the mud flood in Bertam Valley on October 23 which killed three people and destroyed countless homes and more than 100 vehicles.
Dharm Pal Singh, who worked at the Cameron Highlands hydro scheme between 1992 and 1994, said it would take only minutes to clean the intake screen at the Sultan Abu Bakar hydroelectric dam reservoir.
He was commenting on a recent news report in which TNB said the intake screen had clogged due to rubbish on Oct 22, which forced the four generators at the Sultan Yussof hydroelectric power station to stop working.
“TNB should be well aware that once the power station is no longer able to operate between 50 per cent to 100 per cent, water level in the reservoir will rise rapidly,” he said.
“It will then be forced to release the water to avoid the possibility of triggering a spilling.
“TNB staff might have caused a blunder by releasing too much water from the dam’s big gated spillway to downstream of Bertam Valley.”
Dharm Pal said that clogging due to rubbish is a daily occurrence at the dam even when he was working there.
Read more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/tnb-negligence-may-have-led-to-bertam-valley-flood-claims-engineer
