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Showing posts with label Tenaga Nasional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tenaga Nasional. Show all posts

Saturday, December 10, 2011

A house built on smart ideas with earning power

Earth's horizon and the International Space St...Image via Wikipedia

A house built on smart ideas

By WINNIE YEOH winnie@thestar.com.my Photos by WAN MOHIZAN WAN HUSSEIN 

WITH cool breeze blowing into his house which is also basking in ample natural light, retiree Tan Vait Leong does not need to switch on the lights or air conditioner during the day.

Even at noon, the 56-year-old’s bungalow at Puncak Bukit Mutiara in Pearl Hill is still cool, thanks to the environmentally-friendly and open concept design of the house.

“The planning of the design of the house started five years ago, while construction of the property took three years to complete.

“I would draw up the designs and concepts for the house while I was at airports or in planes, as I travelled frequently for work.

“I enjoyed the process, as it was also an outlet for me to destress,” said the former vice-president of a multinational company.

Having spent a substantial amount of time travelling, the father-of-four said it was only right that he designed his house ala-resort style so he would not “need to go for holidays anymore”.

One of the special features of the house is the photovoltaic (PV) solar panel fixed on the roof, which Tan had obtained through the National Suria 1000 programme to generate power from solar energy.

With that, his household is automatically enlisted under the newly launched feed-in-tariff (FiT) programme where Tenaga Nasional Bhd will buy back power generated from the PV solar panel.

Currently, the PV electricity subsidised about 20% of the household’s total electricity intake while Tan pays about RM700 monthly for his power bill.

“With the FiT, I might not have to fork out a single sen for my electricity bill,” he said yesterday.

A tour around the handsome house with a built-up area of 8,000sq ft shows there are five spacious rooms, four bathrooms, an infinity pool with a view overlooking the sea which is also connected to the living room and master bedroom, an indoor fish pond, a kitchen, a family room, a study room, a living room, an outdoor deck as well as a cosy playroom for Tan’s 10-year-old twin daughters.

Aptly named after Tan’s wife, Foo Sin Gein, 54, he said his home Gein Villa was constructed to blend into existing green environment where the big trees around are spared from the axe.

“I don’t spend money on landscaping. The trees shed leaves seasonally but it is part of the feature of the house. I don’t understand the reasons behind cutting down trees if people want to build houses on the hillside.

“Well there are occasions where our ‘special guests’ — monkeys, squirrels and bats will pay a visit but we don’t harm them as they are not aggressive, just playful,” he said.

There are no excessive furniture in the house, with only the walnut and cherry flooring along with salvaged chengal wood which Tan used to lay the staircase and kitchen tabletop.

“I also use the hollow bricks that were left over from the construction as display shelves,” he said.

“We water the plants with water from the fish pond, and we keep plants at the pool and the filter tub to absorb the nitrate.”



Retiree who still has earning power

By WINNIE YEOH winnie@thestar.com.my


GEORGE TOWN: While most people have to pay for their electricity, a 56-year-old retiree is looking forward to selling it to Tenaga Nasional Bhd.

And Tan Vait Leong (pic) simply can’t wait to be paid by the utility giant for the power generated from his photovoltaic (PV) solar panels fixed on the roof of his Tanjung Bungah home.

Believed to be among the first consumers in Penang to obtain the PV under the National Suria 1000 programme to generate power from solar energy, his household is automatically enlisted under the newly launched feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme.

“This is a blessing in disguise. I have always been conscious about the environment and had incorporated recycling and green ideas into my daily life.

“With this, I might not have to fork out a single sen for my electricity bill,” he said excitedly at his double-storey bungalow at Puncak Bukit Mutiara in Pearl Hill.

The former mechanical engineer said the PV electrivity subsidised about 20% of electricity usage for his sprawling premises with a built-up area of 8,000sq ft (743.22sq m).

Currently, the father-of-four forks out about RM700 monthly for his power bill.

Tan also maintains an open concept for his five-room bungalow where good air circulation keeps the environment cool while ample natural light through glass panels brighten up the interior.

“The swimming pool is part of the house while the indoor fish pond keeps the home cool and is low maintenance too.

“I don’t need to switch on the lights or air-conditioners at all during the day while I do keep several floor fans on,” he added.

Launched last week, the FiT allows individuals or non-individuals to sell electricity generated from renewable energy sources back to power utility firms at a fixed premium price for a specific duration.

The four renewal energy sources that are eligible for FiT are biogas, biomass, small hydropower and solar photovoltaic.

Currently, the rate Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) pays to renewable power producers is 21 sen per kWh
Concurrently, the average domestic rate that consumers pay to TNB is 27.6 sen per kWh.

With FiT, consumers can install their own solar modules at home and earn a secondary income.

Under the Renewable Energy Act 2011, consumers who installed capacity up to and including 4 kWp (kilowatt peak) would be paid a FiT of RM1.23 per kWh.


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Umno leader linked to Alstom bribery scandal?

Alstom badgeImage by Alex van Herwijnen via Flickr

Umno leader linked to Alstom bribery scandal, says Singapore daily

 By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 — Already on the backfoot over a national cattle farming scandal, Umno is now rocked by allegations that a former leader took kickbacks from French engineering giant Alstom for a power plant project in Perlis.

Singapore’s Straits Times (ST) reported today that Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials raided last week the offices of Teknologi Tenaga Perlis Consortium (TTPC), which is partly controlled by former Dewan Negara president and ex-Perlis Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Pawanteh (picture).

The newspaper said the Umno veteran was directly implicated in Alstom’s indictment for bribery in securing foreign contracts.

Abdul Hamid is said to have been paid 7.5 million Swiss francs (RM25.5 million) to help Alstom secure a contract to build a power plant in Perlis in the late 1990s. He was the state’s mentri besar from 1986 to 1995.

The Singapore daily said both Abdul Hamid and his former business partner, Ti Chee Liang, were singled out in the criminal summons against Alstom.

According to ST, Alstom was fined €31 million (RM130 million) by the Swiss Attorney-General two weeks ago for failing to implement proper controls to prevent bribery by company executives in Malaysia, Latvia and Tunisia, an offence under Swiss law.

Alstom is a major player in Malaysia in the power business, and is credited with supplying key equipment for nearly 7.5 gigawatts of the country’s installed power generation capacity, the paper added.



Citing government sources familiar with the investigations, ST reported that the MACC will be questioning local Alstom executives in the days ahead.

Last month, Alstom’s Malaysian office denied it was aware of local investigation regarding the RM133 million fine by Swiss authorities involving contracts awarded to the company here.

“There is no probe ongoing in Malaysia that we are aware of and Alstom have co-operated fully in Switzerland. The fine is for corporate negligence in the past and not for bribery,” Alstom Malaysia president, Saji Raghavan, said in a statement.

“In fact, investigation confirms there is no systematic bribery and sufficient controls are in place,” he pointed out.

The company had described itself as a “subcontractor of a consortium” and a “victim of the actions of some of its employees, who would have benefited from kickbacks”, according to a previous Reuters report.

Alstom is the second French company in as many years to be fined for bribing government officials in Malaysia, after telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent paid RM435 million to resolve US criminal and civil probes in December 2010.

The four-year probe centred on payments made by Alstom Network Schweiz AG to middlemen — termed “commercial agents” by the company — in return for securing government contracts to build power stations in 15 countries since the 1990s.

Alstom was awarded a RM2.8 billion contract by Tenaga Nasional earlier this year to provide key power generation equipment to Southeast Asia’s first 1,000-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired power plant Manjung, Malaysia.

It also won turnkey contracts in 1994 and 2000 to build four power plants including the 1,300MW Lumut and the 670MW Kuala Langat plants and deals in 2003 and 2004 to install environmental control systems for the Tanjung Bin and Jimah coal-fired power plants.

Alstom was also appointed by Tenaga to supply two 125MW hydro power turbines, a generator and ancillaries for the 250MW Hulu Terengganu hydro power plant in 2010.

Alstom says it is “the largest original equipment manufacturer in Malaysia” having supplied key equipment for nearly 7.5 gigawatt (GW) of the country’s installed power generation capacity.

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