| Azlan Othman |
NETWORK reliability is an important indicator to measure the ability of power supply system to provide a continuous supply of electrical load to consumers and industries to meet the needs of the national economy, said Pengiran Jamra Weira bin Pengiran Haji Petra, Deputy Permanent Secretary (Power, IT and E-Government) at the Energy and Industry Department.
He made the statement during the 7th Meeting of the Heads of Asean Power Utility and Authority (HAPUA) Working Group No 3: Distribution and Power Reliability & Quality at the International Convention Centre, Berakas yesterday.
He added that networks in Asean member states are exposed to various risks especially weather, ageing equipment and overloading and that managing network reliability becomes important to ensure availability and improvement of electricity supply to consumers.
“I am pleased to learn the subject of managing network reliability is addressed. We have seen how the electrical sector evolved over the years towards technological advancement. From traditional to smart grids, there are several success stories we can take away from such as the Canadian Smart Grids. Developing an Asean Smart Grid Roadmap is important to ensure policy, standards and metering system standards are parallel,” said Pengiran Jamra Weira.
“Having the key people in the subject of distribution, power reliability and quality across the region presents an opportunity for exchanges in information and best practises,” added Pengiran Jamra Weira. “Having this platform encourages harmonisation of the experience of other countries and raises the quality of services; members of HAPUA will have similar policies among Asean member states critical in multi-country technical understanding of multilateral arrangements.
A total of 74 delegates from Asean member states attended the meeting preceded by a sub-working group meeting from April 2-3. The 7th HAPUA Working Group meeting is hosted by the Department of Electrical Services (DES).
The Republic of Singapore chaired the meeting with a representative from the Singapore Power Group. The achievements of the Financial Year 2017/2018 and the progress of the Financial Year 2018/2019 work plans of the Working Group No 3 projects were discussed at the meeting.
There are three projects undertaken by the Working Group – Best Practices on Asset Management; Managing Distribution Network Reliability; and Smart Grid Roadmap of Asean Member States.
The meeting served as a platform where power utilities and authorities in the region discussed the impact and integration of Distributed Energy Resources/Renewable Energy on the power grid towards achieving HAPUA’s target of achieving 23 per cent of renewable energy in the electricity generation mix by 2025.
The HAPUA Working Group No 3 allows exchange of knowledge experiences through the power reliability and quality projects, renewable energy integration processes as well as asset management.
At the working group level, HAPUA aims to establish criteria for the benchmarking of system operations performance among Asean member countries. HAPUA also organised numerous workshops, seminars and trainings that have benefitted Brunei to be on par with other power utilities in the region.
As the main power utility in the country, DES gained knowledge through its participation in HAPUA organised events such as technology development in the power industry, enhancement of transmission and distribution reliability, system protection and control, and human resources development. It helped DES to improve the power system to achieve the high quality of life in alignment with Brunei Vision 2035.
DES channelled the allocation of National Development Plan and annual budget towards network expansion and maintenance strategies to increase the network reliability and integrity. This realignment effort showed encouraging outcomes with significant improvements in the DES KPI’s on reliability indices.
Established in 1981, HAPUA comprises five working groups – Generation & Renewable Energy; Transmission; Distribution and Power Quality & Reliability; Policy Studies & Commercial Development; and Human Resources.
The HAPUA Working Group No 3 was established to share strategies, best practises, challenges and experiences of the power services providers to enhance power reliability and quality. The results of this meeting will be reported to the HAPUA Council Meeting scheduled to be held later this year. The HAPUA Council will report directly to the Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM).
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