Industrial training - Kuala Langat Power Plant

I have been taking Genting Sanyen Power (one of the subsidiaries group from Genting Berhad) a.k.a GSP scholarship for three years yet I have no idea how my sponsor’s Kuala Langat Power Plant looks like. I always think is it the same as what I read in my text books? Am I studying irrelevant things? Now I am able to tell that I am not wasting my time in UNITEN. It is very similar to what I am studying.

For engineers:

Kuala Langat Power Plant is a 720MW gas fired combined cycle power plant. In the combined cycle power plant, the gas turbine will first burn natural gas (>1000 degree C) to generate electricity in the first power cycle. The exhaust gas a.k.a waste heat from the gas turbine (>500 degree C) will then route to the Heat Recovery Steam Generator a.k.a HRSG or boiler to produce steam for the second steam power cycle to generate additional electricity. Kuala Langat power plant is one of the most efficient power plants in Malaysia which is 51.75%.

For non-engineers:

720MW = 720,000,000 Watt. A typical fluorescent light consumes 22 watts. Therefore, 720MW can light up 32,000,000 (32 million) fluorescent lights.

To be more realistic, the electricity bill in Malaysia is calculated base on kWh. We have to do some math here.

Converting 720MW to kWh will be 43,200,000 kWh. According to the TNB electricity tariff, the cheapest tariff is RM 0.218/kWh.

(note: this tariff is just for the first 200 units. For any extra units, the tariff will be RM 0.334/kWh)

Thus, RM 0.218/kWh x 43,200,000 kWh= RM 9,417,600/hour or RM 9.4 million/hour.

RM 9.4 million will be the amount that TNB receive for every hour. The above calculation is the payment that TNB will receive from the public. It is just a very rough calculation. For power plants, the calculation will be different. The attention that I want to draw here is with just a power plant the profit that it can gain sometime is out of our imagination……….(sensitive here so censored out).

My working environment

Every day I will sit in front of my laptop busy calculating (one of the job scopes of engineers) and doing the assignments given by my seniors a.k.a supervisors. I have to recall back all the theories and apply them. Sometime, I will be at the ALSTOM mini library to search for information to complete my tasks. So far, I have successfully created some programs using PI (π) Process Book to monitor the operation of the power plant. ^^ My senior said he has never expected me to do this. GOOD! ( No pictures are available here because I want to abide the contract that I signed).

I appreciate the job I am working now because I can sit most of the time and use my brain to work. Compare to last year when I was working as a waiter at the Curve Dragon-I, I had to stand/run for 8.5 hrs per day and every morning I had to carry and arrange 30+ chairs (The chairs are not made in plastic but HEAVY steel, you can ask Chun Hong how heavy it is). During the working period in Dragon-I, I always have the thought of ‘With my qualification I shouldn’t have to do this kind of job’. I have PROMISED myself that in the future I will NEVER ever use my strength to work but my intelligence. I am proud to be an engineer because I can design devices for example power plants or factories or machines that could gain profit by themselves with minimum supervision so that the profits will be automatically earned and multiply with how many devices I have made. One man can only earn little without any good partners.

(note: partners in this case will be the devices). Everyone please study hard!!!

My Meal

GSP provides lunch to all the staff. I like the pantry in the office because every morning I can have my breakfast there for free. I can cook Maggie mi using the oven or make some special drinks there. During lunch time, I will go to the canteen. There will be SIX different types of Chinese cuisines consist of 1 fish + 1 chicken + 2 vegetables + 2 types of special cuisines (most likely 炸料理) + FRUITS (never expect fruits will be on the dining table!). What a balance diet that follows thoroughly the pyramid of food. Every day the food will be different and special. I have tried the 奶油虾, 芋头饭, 鸡饭, 大鱼丸, ABC soup (yummy!!), Laksa, Nasi Lemak. Of course, I take all the six dishes as MUCH as I can and I don’t have to pay a single cent. If I do this at outside, it will cost me at least RM 7.00. However, for dinner, I have to pay on my own. Maximum RM5 per dinner. I just need to pay RM 80 for my meal per month because I will go back on every weekend. I can save all my allowance. Hehe. ;)

My Apartment

My apartment is very near to the power plant so I am still on my bed at 7.30am. I have no worry about being late and the heavy traffic jam in KL in the morning. (Tension FREE!) My room is equipped with air conditioning system and water heater. Every night I have to wrap myself like a mummy because my roommate will set the temperature to 21 degree C. (He said he feels hot with 26 degree C). :-S To my surprise, there is housekeeping service for my apartment every weekend. I don’t have to clean my room at all and the bed sheet will be replaced with a clean one every weekend. Thank you Genting Sanyen Power. ^^

Sofa and TV set

Water Heater

Panasonic Air Conditioning unit

All work no play

At last, I have finished all my final examination papers and Electro Mechanical System a.k.a. EMS Project. It had been more than a month I didn’t go for outing. After the super duper busy week, I had to sit for my final for two weeks. No rest at all! (T.T) Every day I had to stay at home to study or do project. My brain is saturated with all the theories. My body and I are EXHAUSTED, we need rest. I want to sleep for more than 5 hours per day. I want to take a nap in the afternoon. I want to watch movies. I want to shop. Although the semester is finished but I just have one day to rest. Tomorrow, I will be heading to Genting Sanyen Power Station for industry training at 6 am. Happy one day holiday to me and my friends who have just finished their last paper on Saturday.

Though I had to scarify my sleeping time but all my efforts paid in the end. For the EMS project, we have to do animations and a prototype of a three phase induction motor in three days. No one has the skills to use Macromedia Flash software. Jason and I tried our best to produce animations by using Flash. It was a hard time for us since we had to learn from zero and meet the time constraint. However, after long time sitting in front of my laptop, we managed to produce four animations!! Hohoho.

During presentation, our group received excellent comments from our lecturer Dr. Khairul. He said: ‘This one will definitely get full marks! Your group really wants to score (Of course =P). I will show your animations to students of next semester. I have no question to ask you’ BRAVO!! We feel great and in high spirit!! (^-^) V Thank you to all my group members: Jason Lee, Chun Hong, Kok Wei, and Yik Hong. Below are the animations:

(note: suppose all the animations are continuously rotating in loops but since blogger doesn't support .swf format so they just rotate once)

Principles of a three phase induction motor :

(Click to enlarge)

Figure 1.1: Codes of Flash (all the dots in the pic are the timing of the animation, the most difficult part!)

Figure 1.2 Rotating magnetic field clockwise direction

Figure 1.3: Magnetic vector clockwise direction

Figure 1.4: Magnetic vector counter clockwise direction

Though I promised to update my blog of the 16’’ rim but I am really tired now. May be next time? zzZ