SRA President Robert Quah, Vice-President Mazlan Kamaruddin and I met officials from Syabas and Tenaga Nasional for two hours on Tuesday evening to discuss ways of reducing incidences of water cuts due to pump failure and electricity disruption.
Top line result:- Hopefully, water cuts due to pump failure will be reduced tremendously through 3 steps:
1) Installing an SMS-based early-alert system that gives Syabas about 4 hours lead time to take remedial measures in case of pump failure, and
2) Adjusting current automatic pump circuitry to enable any one working pump to take over the duties of a failed pump, and
3) Putting a spare water tank on standby to add to the buffer capacity of the service reservoir.
Item 1 was done last Friday -- one day after meeting SRA President -- while item 2 will be done once Syabas technical department figures out how to fine-tune the electrical relay system. Item 3 will be implemented soon.
Now the background: This meeting resulted from a series of emails between your Committee and Puspel customer service centre arising from last Wednesday and Thursday's pump failures.
The Syabas team was led by Encik Mohd Azmi Jamaluddin, the senior technical manager for Syabas Wilayah KL, while Tenaga was represented by Nur Zaidi Mohd Yusup who is in charge of Seputeh.
Actually, Encik Azmi and the Syabas General Manager had visited Robert last Thursday itself to show their concern and to assure the SRA that they were doing their best under the circumstances. This came about after the Committee sent an email to the Puspel centre expressing our displeasure with the water cuts on two consecutive days. We had wanted to meet them on Saturday but they asked for more notice and suggested Tuesday.
Here is the Puspel email reply, time-stamped late Thursday afternoon, which I am reproducing in full:
On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 4:49 PM, Puspel
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> Our General Manager and Senior Technical Manager of SYABAS Kuala
> Lumpur met Mr. Robert Quah (President) at 12.30 pm at his house to
> explain on this matter. We would like to convey our appreciation for
> his understanding. We would then like to proceed to visit you but were
> informed that you are at work.
>
> We are sorry for the inconvenience caused as the interruption happens
> as a result of faulty TNB cable due to old age. It was repaired
> yesterday but the cable was damaged again this morning. TNB contractor
> is in the midst of replacing the faulty cable now and it is expected
> to be completed by this evening. This is hope to be the long term solution.
>
> Notice of the interruption was not given earlier because the
> interruption is unscheduled. Nevertheless, we have issued water
> tankers and 5 litre bottled water immediately upon the problem arising
> today. For your information, in the past, the water interruption was
> due to unavoidable reasons as a result of at least 4 cases of pump
> trips and 3 cases of pipe bursts.
>
> Should you still insist on meeting with us, we are very sorry as we
> could not make it this Saturday due to prior arrangement.
> Nevertheless, we would like to suggest this to be on Tuesday. Should
> you have any queries, please do not hesitate to call our Senior
> Technical Manager, En. Mohd Azmi Jamaluddin at
>
> Thank you.
>
> "Towards Excellent Water Services"
>
> Regards,
>
> NAZRATUL HUDA IBRAHIM
> PUSPEL
> SYABAS
> Toll Free: 1-800-88-52-52
Here are the details:
After our strongly-worded complaints to Puspel, the Syabas team swung into action. We will give credit where credit is due. They immediately ordered an early-warning system for the service reservoir (the one in front of Sri Langit's main entrance). It was installed on Friday.
At Tuesday's meeting, the SRA officials found out that the early warning system works on the basis that if the water level drops to four feet above the strainer which covers the outlet pipe (meaning only four feet of water left in the reservoir), an SMS will be sent to Encik Azmi and another officer called Encik Mohd Rozam.
We asked how long could four feet last at an average consumption rate and we were told 2-3 hours. This means if the pumps fail, they would be alerted only when the water level dropped to four feet.
We suggested the threshold be raised to six feet and they agreed. This will give Syabas at least 4 hours to solve the problem. This change from 4 feet to 6 feet will be implemented by this Friday, they promised.
As for the pumps, there are two at the pump house along Jalan Taman Seputeh. Each pump is designated to work a 12-hour shift and the shift-change is automated by a timer. This means when the water level at the service reservoir drops to 1 foot from the overflow pipe, the pump will start. When the level reaches the overflow pipe, it will stop. But, if the pump that is "on duty" happens to break down, it will not work when the "signal to pump" is sent from the service reservoir.
We strongly suggested that Syabas engineers look into installing some kind of an auto-relay system that can "override" the 12-hour shift if one pump breaks down. In other words, if one pump fails, it should trigger an "override" command to the other pump to take over its "shift" even if it is not scheduled to be "on duty".
They agreed that this could be done but they had to bring this idea back to their engineers to study and will revert.
The Syabas team also assured us that the pumps are manually checked twice a day. This means any such an "override" situation could be easily detected by humans within 12 hours and the faulty pump repaired or replaced. So, there is no risk of one pump working all the time and then "burning-out".
The third idea of using a spare storage tank was agreed immediately. Using this tank will perhaps buy us a little bit more time before the taps run dry -- for high-ground homes, it could mean an hour.
As for Tenaga, Encik Zaidi assured us that the pumphouse is considered a priority installation and Tenaga monitors supply to it round-the-clock. He said if there was a supply failure from Tenaga's side, it would know immediately and a "flying squad" would be despatched.
However, it would not be able to detect any electrical "trip" within the pumphouse. This would be akin to the ELCB trip-switch that you have in your homes. Once it is tripped -- whether by a short-circuit or by lightning -- you would have to manually reset it.
The Syabas team has resolved this by installing a seven-pole surge protection relay into the pumphouse electrical system to prevent trips. Once the ELCB trips, it will also RESET ITSELF after 1 minute. So we have double protection now -- surge protection as well as auto reset of ELCB trips!
Now, dear SRA members, the Committee is happy that Syabas and Tenaga have come together to reassure Seputeh residents of their efforts in reducing pump failures. For that, we are indeed grateful.
What is more important to us is this: --
For many, many years, we had to wait until our taps run dry and then we call Waterworks. Even up to last Thursday, that was the situation.
Now, Waterworks have put in pre-emptive measures to ensure integrity of power supply and early warning of pump failure. Even if the pumps fail, they will be alerted at least 4 hours before our taps run dry.
With this lead-time, they will try their best to avert a dry-tap situation.
Now that is what I call progress.
Thank you, Syabas.
Thank you, Tenaga.
And thank you, SRA members, for being patient all these years.
Cheers
K.H. Lim
Vice-President
P.S. A caveat: Your taps may still run dry if there are burst pipes or leaking mains but that is another story :)
