An Anniversary to Remember...

On July 26th 2007, I was invited to attend a Charity Dinner hosted by MNC-CIGRE and MNC-CIRED at PJ Hilton. The dinner were organised by both of the non-profit engineering societies to honor thier members and at the same time to collect fund for Majlis Kanser Nasional (MAKNA) through sale of dinner tables for local companies associated with the power industry.

Coincidently, the dinner date also fell on our 18th anniversary and I took the oppurtunity to bring my other half to the dinner. The dinner was supposed to start at 8.00PM but we only arrived at the location about half an hour past due to bad traffic. In fact, on that day, I have to cut-short a meeting with the big-boss at about 6.50PM and have to asked her permission to leave as I need to go home first and pick-up my other half to the dinner. Well, from the office to BJ, it took me more than an hour to arrive and no thanks to the the congested traffic due to heavy evening rain and thus delayed our journey to the hotel.

As we arrived, the dinner was just about to start. I guessed, many people were also late due to the rain. Most VIPs were already arrived and as we stepped into the ballroom, and were asked to share the table purchased by APS and were greeted by Dr Sallehudin and also his wife. After short speeches by Vice-Chairman of MNC-CIGRE and the chairman of TNB, the dinner started. I could not really recall how many courses of chinese dinner we were served but enough said that I skipped most of them after the third course. There was a 2 piece live band entertaining the 400 plus guests and I would say that they were not bad in what they did !

Since the dinner was meant for charity, the organiser has decided to let key VIPs to sing using the karaoke machine on the stage. Well, for a VIP to sing, the guests were asked to bid on how much they would willing to pay for the singing. Chairman of TNB got the highest bid that night at RM3000 and the pledge was made by one of the IPP guests. I was also asked by the organiser to sing a song but I decided not to for many-many reasons.



here was also a mocked cheque presentation ceremony held where the organiser presented an amount of more than 30K to MAKNA chairman. This amount did not include the amount collected during the karaoke singing by the VVIPs. I think the organiser may have collected close to 40K alone that night !




To me the highlight of the dinner was when I received an honorary award as tribute to my service to the MNC-CIGRE until I 'retired' from the Secretary position early this year. I was given a new Canon G7 Digital Camera of which I was asked about this choice some two weeks before this. Chairman of MNC-CIGRE himself gave the 'award' to me and I am very honored to receive such recognition.




The dinner came to end at about 11.30PM. My other half was quite happy to accompany me as she also got to meet her friend whom she met when we were in Amsterdam 3-4 years ago. Well, so much about our annivesary celebration. I think this is one anniversary that will stick in our memory for long...Alhamdullilah. Oh yeah, the morning of the same day, MNC-CIGRE organised a free 1-Day Forum on Power Technologies open to the public. About 60 people from the power sector industry and also from the universities attended the forum. Several international speakers were invited to give talks on the future of power technology and I would say the forum was a resounding success judging on the full-capacity crowd filling up the ballroom..

IEEE Industrial Lecture Programme

My boss and I were asked to give a 2-hour talk about Power System Security on Saturday June 17 at UiTM. I decided to participate on this program simply because the request was from a very good friend of mine whom over the years has become almost like a brother to me. However, he made the request while I was in Kuantan and away from the office. Thus, out of his own initiative, he took the photo from this blog and decided to use it in the leaflet he prepared for the forum. Nothing much I can do about it because the leaflets have already being circulated around and according to him, there are already many people registered to hear our talk. I just hope that nobody will have the impression that I am trying the conceal my true indentity by posting the embossed version of my photo and hopefully, we can deliver a good lecture to the academicians and also to everyone else attending the forum. Anyhow, everyone is invited and I also heard that the organiser will also serve refreshment during the forum !

Images from CIGRE SC6 2007 Colloquium Langkawi - Finale

The following are few candid moments I managed to capture during the colloquium. I fully utilised my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L for the pictures and I never had to use my flash unit with this fast lens. In addition, most of this photos were taken from a distance and those facial expressions you see were genuine...




Candid photos can be interpreted in so many ways. Sometimes it can also show the state of the mind of a particular individual. In a colloquium like this, one can only guest that the best expression will be people in deep contemplation or sheer exhaustion from listening to an intense intelectual discourse...

Images from CIGRE SC6 2007 Colloquium Langkawi - Part IV

One of the trip organised for the delegate of SC6 Colloquium in Langkawi is the trip to Pantai Chenang town and a stop-by at Pantai Kok to observe the sunset. I took this golden oppurtunity to learn the technique of silhoutte and also to capture the moment when the sky turned to red during sunset.


The following photos were captured during the trip to Pantai Kok, Langkawi together with the colloquium delegates.





I also tried my skill on photographic silhouttes and these are some examples out of my mediocre skill.





Later, I also tried the fill-in flash technique to highlight the main object facing bright light sources. Dr Salleh and one of the colloquium delegates were used as the models of these photos and I deeply sorry for the not-so-great results !!!




We were taken to Pantai Chenang town after the sunset viewing session has completed. The town is not so busy at this time of the year and I did not enjoy taking any photos out of this condition. Nonetheless, one night earlier I managed to capture the main road of Pantai Chenang town and you can just tell how quite the town was...

Images from CIGRE SC6 2007 Colloquium Langkawi - Part III

The idea to organise the colloquium was mooted few years back by the members of the MNC-CIGRE particularly Mr Halim Osman, who is the converner of the MNC-CIGRE SC6.


Before we can secure the privillege to become the host, a lot of effort has been put by members in terms of lobbying and also promotional campaign to get maximum participants from all over the world. In year 2006 CIGRE General Session in Paris, we published a promotional video about the Colloquium to attract participants. Dr. Ridzal and myself even had the luxury to become the executive- directors of the short video programme by shooting the messages from the MNC-CIGRE Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Developing this video alone takes a lot of effort and help from the pros of TNB's Corporate Communication Department and without thier tremendous support, we would not be able to produce a good quality promotional video.





On the first day of the colloquium, a panel session was organised to address the topic of "Rural Electrification and its Role in Socio-Economic Development". Five speakers were invited comprising of both international and regional experts on socio-economic development vis-a-vis rural electrification. Each panel expert deliberated on the following issues as applicable to a country or region.
1. What roles are played by rural electrification in socio-economic development?
2. Which business models and approaches can be applied to rural electrification?
3. Which technologies offer appropriate oppurtunities in both electrification and small scale industries?
4. Environmental impacts/improvements of rural electrifications
5. Rural electrification costs and subsidies.





Apart from the panel session, technical paper presentation sessions were also conducted where delegates presented thier own experiences on this subject matter. On the second day, a representative from UNDP gave a very good presentation on rural development including electrification of Malaysia. He obviously knew what he is talking about as his data on the Malaysian background is quite up to date, at least from my humble point of view.




Dato Sidek Ahmad from TNB also presented a paper on the TNB experience. Obviously he is very knowledgeable technically and a very accomplished orator despite his very high position in the company. Other Malaysian speaker include Mr. Wong Tin Song from KTAK, and Mr. Azhar Abd Rahman from TNBES who papers attracted many for outside discussions.




The two day session was definitely a success judging from the quality of papers and discussions held. Obviously, exchanges of experience like this are not easy to do if all the experts were not housed under one roof. However, I am a bit disappointed by the fact that there were no representatives from the Ministry of Rural Development. To me, they have just missed a golden oppurtunity to learn about the experiences of other countries in rural electrification programme.





Whatever it is, the organising committee really did a good job in getting many oversea participants such as from India, USA, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Belgium, Germany, UK, Finland and China to the colloquium. Again, kudos to them for such a great event ! Kudos also to TNB for providing tremendous support for MNC-CIGRE in terms of providing IT personnel, photographer and AV staff, and also other logistic supports. Without the help from TNB, it will be difficult to conduct the colloquium successfully !