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

容忍的人其實並不笨, 只是寧可對自己殘忍

Finally, I have finished all the projects and presentations which drove me crazy.. Now, I can sleep for more than 5 hours.. huuuuuuhhhhhhhhhh.. BIG relief.. Last week was a super duper busy week.. Each day due one long report..

Monday – Mechanical Design Process a.k.a MDP report (70 pages)
+ Sport and work place management report (25 pages) &
presentation (I like the presentation, we danced for the intro)

Wednesday – Thermofluid Lab final exam

Thursday – MDP presentation ( good comments from instructor )

Friday – Engineers in Society a.k.a EIS report (50 pages)
+ Technical Communication report ( 30 pages)

The most difficult report for me is the Technical Communication report because I was the only one who wrote the report while the other groups had at least one group member to help in the report (FYI, all the groups consist of minimum 5 persons).. My life was miserable because of my S _ _ _ group mates!!!

Although they did sent me the assigned tasks to me but the problem was they simply did the tasks.. I couldn’t put the tasks inside the report.. The same things returned to me again when I asked for correction.. I had NO choice at all.. I want to score the subject so I did it solely.. All the marks should belong to me!! 5 times more efforts than other classmates..

You may wonder why don’t I select my group mates.. Well, initially I was in a group which everyone in the group is willing to put in effort.. However, unfortunately, there were people in the class didn’t put effort to form a group.. (See they didn’t even try to form a group, how am I going to expect QUALITY outputs from them)..She dragged me out from the group and promised will take care of me and the group………………….......(sensitive here so censored out)..

To my group mates in TECB class: I want QUALITY output from you not GARGABE!!! If you didn’t do your part properly and correctly, bear in mind that someone else will need to do for it.. The report wouldn’t fall from the sky.. ( 容忍的人其實並不笨, 只是寧可對自己殘忍) I want to score but have no choice to do it on my own..

In my opinion, I think the same thing is happening to some groups also.. ( Land slide, ok? =P) The TECB class should allow students to choose their own group because there are people who are willing to put in effort while some are not.. If you put them together, the lazy bump will get a free ride.. If there are no multi-races groups, I bet………………………………

Below are some of the examples:

''Once a source of drinking water, many rivers in Malaysia have become dumping grounds for various types of hazardous wastes. Of all natural resources.''

I thought International students are good and hardworking.. I don't know what you are writing.. If you want to cut and paste, at least make it to be perfect.. Whenever you couldn't meet the deadline you just came to me and said sorry, you have tests (well, only you have test) bla bla bla then sorry and bye.. Can I say the same thing to our lecturer???? Well, you need to plan your time wisely and be responsible.. I have not very good (sounds nicer) / _ a _ impression on International students..

''was conducted on February 17, 2009 at MPKj. We had taken about 8 weeks to complete this long report and had spent about RM 50 for transportation and printings.''

This sentence is under the scope of research in the report.. Well, for academic writing, readers would not want to know how much we spent on transportation and printings.. Besides, there is ''we'' in the sentence.. I had told her not to put I, We and Our in the report.. BIG SIGH.. No choice but have to do her part..

Mechanical Design Process (^^)V

For the MDP project (spent 12 weeks), I can say that my group did very well!! Thank you for your hard work to my group mate Mr. Chun Hong a.k.a ah chan.. (PS, he was with me all the time doing the project) Without you, our group will not succeed.. Our group was designing an electrical automatic car jack system..

The prototype of the electrical automatic car jack system..



Spent 4 hours to derive this equation.. Proud of it.. =)

Below are the optimization done on the design..

(click to enlarge)

The initial safety factor is too high which means the design is too safe.. Material can be saved from the design..

(click to enlarge)

Cost that have been saved for one mounting head is RM0.10..

If the mounting head is to be produced for 1 million units then RM 100,000 ( house or car) can be saved!

Proud to be an engineer!!

子欲养而亲不在 (touch wood)

Yesterday, my dad saw things blurly.. I brought him to see eyes specialist in Kajang.. The eyes specialist immediately sent my dad to Melaya Hospital.. My dad's eyes were very critical.. In the hospital, my dad was hardly seeing things.. I had to hold his hand all the time to guide him.. As I held his hand along the way to another department.. Feelings came into my mind and heart.. I was so afraid that he............... The operation MUST be PERFECT!! God, I am praying very hard for that.. I hope my dad will be pink in health tomorrow.. Thanks in advance..

随着自己愈长大，看着父母亲,脸庞从年轻变憔悴，头发从乌丝变白发,动作从迅捷变缓慢，多心疼！父母亲总是将最好、最宝贵的留给我们，像蜡烛不停的燃烧自己，照亮孩子！而我呢？有没有腾出一个空间给我的父母，或者只是在当我需要停泊岸时，才会想起他们...其实父母亲要的真的不多，只是一句随意的问候「爸、妈，你们今天好吗？」随意买的宵夜，煮一顿再普通不过的晚餐，帮他们添衣服...都能让他们高兴温馨很久.

朋友,那你呢?