ONG is worried about unannounced power supply disruptions after he received several email on the matter from Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) recently.

He said all the email  have the same content: "There will be power cut (2 - 14 hours) for TNB to do some maintenance work, till Aug 8.

All of Malaysia will be affected."

The email also went on to state: "You can check this website for the time and your area: http://
www.tnb.com.my/tnb/power_alert.php."

"But the website listed no announcement of any major power supply disruption," ONG said. "Navigating the website was also confusing and I am concerned I might have misunderstood the email, that I will not be
prepared when the power supply is cut."

He hoped TNB would clarify.

• A TNB spokesman said there has been a lot of misunderstanding over the utility's scheduled maintenance and that the schedule has been posted on its website.

The scheduled maintenance work was being phased out throughout the country ver 18 months, he said.

The maintenance notice was to give prior information to customers of an impending outage in specific areas at different periods and this would not be concurrent or widespread.

"In other words, only pockets of an area will be affected when scheduled maintenance is conducted  within a vicinity.

For example, if maintenance work is conducted at a substation in one neighbourhood, not all customers in the area will experience power disruption.

Only a particular row or lane in a neighbourhood will not have electricity."

The spokesman said more often than not, TNB customers were not impacted by ongoing scheduled maintenance as the utility always strived to ensure only minor interruptions to they stem.

Where possible, a l ternate supply would be provided to critical customers through mobile generator sets and feedback substations.

"TNB is doing the scheduled maintenance to ensure minimal, if not uninterrupted, electricity supply to consumers.

TNB is required to conduct scheduled maintenance of its substations to keep its installations in good operating conditions," he said.

It is standard practice for TNB to send out notices at least three days before a scheduled power supply  disruption due to maintenance, through the traditional media.

For industrial customers, special notices are also issued.

"TNB is also in constant contact with critical customers so as to come up with an acceptable shutdown date and time for both parties," he added.