INGENIEUR
COVER FEATURE
TENAGA NASIONAL BERHAD
ICT FOR OPERATIONAL
EXCELLENCE
- PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE PLANNING
By
Anthonysamy Rajamanickam,
Christine Yong Wei Ling, M Pavala Malar Kannan,
Tun Abdul Karim Tun Abu Bakar
ICT Division, Tenaga Nasional Berhad
In today’s business environment, use of technology and ICT is without doubt pre-requisites to ensure
operational efficiency, sustainable business operations and improved customer service. With the
convergence of ICT, where communications and IT are used together, it is now possible for companies
to operate and provide services from anywhere and at any time. The authors give some examples of
how TNB has used technology and ICT in the past, and intends to do so in the future in the areas of
asset management, grid operations and customer service.
T
enga Nasional Bhd (TNB), with assets worth
RM99 billion, is one of the most prominent
electric utility companies in South East Asia.
TNB serves about 8.4million customers across
Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan and
employs more than 33,500 people.
TNB’s core businesses are generation,
transmission and distribution of electricity. TNB also
manages a national electricity grid that connects
all power stations and main intake sub-stations
in peninsular Malaysia and also international grid
connections to Thailand and Singapore.
Enhanced Enterprise Asset Management with
Mobility
TNB
is
pursuing PAS 55 certification, an
internationally accredited certification of best
practice for physical asset management. PAS 55
certification provides a systematic and structured
approach for optimal asset management
including performance, risk and expenditure over
the asset management life cycle. Enterprise
Asset Management systems (EAM) are used by
6
16
VOL 58 APRIL 2013 2014
VOL 55 JUNE – JUNE
companies with large assets to obtain PAS 55
certification.
With advanced mobile technology and IT, the
EAM work flow process can be enhanced by adding
mobility to improve work order management as
shown in Figure 1. Subsequently, an in-house
EAM system with mobility was developed and
implemented in August 2011 for transmission
asset management to replace traditional manual
processes. The new system, called Transmission
Operation and Maintenance Analyzing System
(TOMAS), as shown in Figure 2, is used to optimize
asset productivity and minimize total cost of
ownership through conditioning, monitoring,
analytics, automated work and resource planning
and scheduling.
The system relies on the availability of a reliable
communications network and IT systems for data
capture, business process automation, analysis
and reporting. TOMAS automatically assigns
maintenance teams for scheduled maintenance
work through work orders on a mobile device.
Through the mobile device, maintenance teams are