ORGANIZED BY UNIVERSITI TENAGA NASIONAL, BANGI, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA; 28-30 AUGUST 2006
Environmental Management System (EMS) in
Power Plants in Malaysia
J.E. Jamaluddin
Department of Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
Universiti Tenaga Nasional.
jehana@uniten.edu.my
Keywords: Environmental Management System (EMS),
ISO 14001 series, power plants, air pollutants
Abstract
The Environmental Management System (EMS) has proven
to bring more benefits by enhancing competetiveness via
comprehensive management system as to become more
efficient in resource handling and take control of a long-term
cost saving budget. The Environmental Management
System or EMS is truly a model to be adopted by any
organization, as the guideline of implementation has been
prepared. This management system would involve auditing,
monitoring and maintaining a certain scope of management
aspects as stated in proposed policy decided on the first
hand. This paper discusses a decade’s implementation of
EMS in power plants in Malaysia which hold the future for
better management of the natural resources and also to curb
the uncontrolled pollution of the environment.
Introduction
The environment today has been attracting overwhelming
attention from the world. There has been a tremendous
environmental and energy issues discussed that directly
relates to our daily life. In a sustainable growth perspective,
we must address the quality and sustainability of our use of
natural resources and ecosystems, threats of global change,
quality of life and the impact of the production and use of the
energy which is essential to our economies and to our way of
life. It is crucial that the environment should be considered
seriously in any development undertaking. A systematic and
practical way should be highlighted in order to balance
human activity impacts to the environment as to conserve
our Mother Nature.
The developed nations started to sit together and discuss the
global environmental threats and there is sure sign of a sound
outcome. When it comes to think of how legislation and
regulations are made, one might have wondered on how far a
company or an organization would go along tolerating the
International Conference on Energy and Environment 2006 (ICEE 2006)
rules that could be used worldwide. The environmental issue
is not only relevant to the developed countries; it also creates
awareness among the developing countries like Malaysia.
The journey towards standardization of regulations and
legislation were partially brought up.
Development of international standards for environmental
management is due to the responsibility assumed by the
industry for environmental worldwide and towards
sustainable industrial development to the greater demands of
‘green’ products and services. The International Standard
Organization or IOS has introduced the Technical
Committee 207 or ISO/TC 207 on environmental
management at the first committee meeting in Toronto,
Canada in June 1993. The strive for establishing a
sustainable development and maintainable growth of
environmental-consumer relation has been in mind since
then.
Power Plants in Malaysia
Fossil fuel has been utilized for quite a long time in the
industry especially in the energy power sector, the effects are
now discovered and lots of efforts has been put into research
and development of new mean of generating electricity. The
Malaysian air quality scenario however is not much affected
by the fossil fuel based power since it is still kept well below
the allowable par. Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has long
been concern for the environment which best exemplified in
the ISO 14001 certification awarded to the Serdang Power
Station (now known as Putrajaya Power Station) in August
1997, making it the first power station in Malaysia to be so
awarded. Now that most of the power plants are making
their way to certification, the series of standards brightens
the future towards minimizing and mitigating effects from
conservative power plants [1].
Now that the world is promoting the renewable source of
energy, the cropping issues are soon to pressure the energy
sector to operate in accordance to the required standard. The
power plants which have long existed face dilemma as they
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 ORGANIZED BY UNIVERSITI TENAGA NASIONAL, BANGI, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA; 28-30 AUGUST 2006
are still operating on fossil fuel such as coal and fuel oil.
Consequently, the trend of having problems air quality in
Malaysia is common in any given plants around the world.
The regional scenario has begun to identify the plants as
possible pollution menace.
The Malaysian Environmental Quality Report 2004 reported
that power plants are next to vehicle emissions contribution
to air pollutants [2]. Though the contribution of power
plants to our air pollution is quite low in comparison with
other factors like fumes from transportation and smokes
from industrial zones, quantitative and qualitative measures
must be taken to help reduce the emissions to the
atmosphere. The annual report stated that the power plants in
the country as one of the pollution contributors especially in
air pollution.
Nevertheless, the implementation of EMS requires
commitment to reducing pollutant emission to the air as far
as any power plant may concern. The improvement that can
be made is to keep the emissions as low as possible and not
only had to comply worth the maximum level allowed.
Table 1 shows the emission annually [1]. This imposes an
urge to the rising need for an EMS implementation of
Malaysian power plants. Recently, the Department of
Environment reports that the most prevailing pollutant
remains to be PM10 [3].
Table 1. Air Pollutant Emission in Tonnes
Pollutant Weight (Tonnes)
CO 2000000
NOx 236000
HC 111300
SOx 38200
PM 17300
The world is moving from repowering old power plants to
operating a new fleet of higher efficiency and lower
emission plant and there are a large number of plants that
depends on conservative plants. The existing plants would
then become inefficient as the time goes by and leads to
potentially increased pollutants. TNB as the national power
provider comes into role that seeks compliance to the ISO
14000 series standards. Several plants have been seen to
have high efficiency and could keep the emission as low as
possible.
The topographical aspect of locations of the power plants
stresses on the implementation of EMS. Malaysia is a
tropical country with warm and humid weather. This Klang
Valley is reflected by the shuttlecock effect [4]. The wind
International Conference on Energy and Environment 2006 (ICEE 2006)
trends in Malaysia build up the air circulation in Klang
Valley itself. Not only that, a power plant’s operation also
disturbs the aquatic ecology nearby by heating up water
sources to the process of changing of boiler operation or
cleaning process. Also, the worry is also of waste disposal
from the industry into the sea and river that has been
observed day by day in Malaysia calls for alert to a better
plant’s management system. Thus, the EMS aims the best
way of integrating necessary measurement and evaluation
procedures. Since 1997, there are three power plants
eventually granted the ISO 14001 compliant status as in
Table 2.
Table 2. Power Plants with ISO 14001 Compliances
1 Putrajaya Power Station (formerly TNB
known as Serdang Power Station – 625
MW Open-cycle Gas Turbine
2 Teluk Gong PS 1 - 440 MW Open Powertek
Cycle Gas Turbine Berhad
3 Teluk Gong PS 2 - 720 MW Combined Powertek
Cycle Power Plant Berhad
Environmental Management System (EMS)
Implementation and Power Plants in Malaysia
The Department of Environment ensures that the
environmental management in Malaysia is well following
the level required with the aid of organizations and non-
government organization as well. The level of awareness is
still in controllable measure, somehow, enforcement is still
considered poor. Steps have been taken to upgrade the
current enforcement and only with that the EMS comes into
a better implementation with a full commitment from any
organization seeking for compliance.
The real scenario has been a portrayal of the previous
practice whereby the Malaysian trend of air pollution creates
worry on the amount of emission with the current fuel policy
despite the fact that we are moving into a better power
generation technology. It was in 1981 that the government
had a four-fuel policy established of oil, natural gas, hydro
and coal. Figure 1 depicts the generation types in the
existing power plants in Malaysia. The dependence on
fossil fuels is still prevalent as in Figures 2 and 3 showing
that the plants need to formulate a strategy to limit the
pollutants to the air by incorporating new technologies such
as pulverized fuel firing (PFF) and use of bituminous coal
with low sulphur contents.
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 ORGANIZED BY UNIVERSITI TENAGA NASIONAL, BANGI, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA; 28-30 AUGUST 2006

Fig. 1. Generation Type [5] the energy supply mix. RE is targeted to contribute 5% of the
country’s total electricity demand by the year 2005 [6].
With this objective in mind, greater effort is being
undertaken to encourage the utilization of renewable
Generation Type resources, such as biomass, biogas and solar for energy
Hydro generation.
18%
The increase in energy demand (Appendix 1) results in more
Thermal fuel to be used and more contribution to pollutants. The
Hydro power sector is continuing the practice of EMS to balance
business and environmental needs. The implementation of
Thermal
EMS has become a sound practice in organizations and
82%
companies nationwide. The resultant ISO 14001 certified
power plants have then became increasingly competitive to
securing a good reputation as well.

In line with the country’s vision of developing harmoniously

Fig. 2. Generation Capacity Mix [5]
with the environment, the standards are of equally important
to harness a sustainable business growth. Malaysia will
continue a full commitment to generating awareness to
Generation Capacity Mix
support the standard not only locally but also internationally.

CSP Coal
Conclusion
Hydro 18% CSP Coal
35% Combined-Cycle
CSP Oil/Gas An Environmental Management System (EMS) has
OC 15%
OC been defined as a set of cohesive elements that an
Combined-
CSP Oil/Gas Hydro organization may use to minimize its impact on the
7% Cycle 25%
environment with the ISO 14001 implementation.
As the standard series is now being perceived as a
passport for environmentally responsible business
and trades, the resultant product or performance is
often viewed as a better management system. The
Fig. 3. Generation Mix [5] whole idea was not to be mistaken as environmental
pollution prevention and clean up but more or less
of an efficient management system. The
Generation Mix management of resources for a better conservation
of the environment is the key theme.
Hydro 10%
MFO 1% All in all, the Environmental Management System
Gas
Dist 0% has proven to be beneficial in the long run to better
Gas 46% Coal
manage resources. The implementation of EMS in
Dist
power plants strikes a balance between the use of
Coal 43% MFO
energy and conservation of environment in
Hydro
Malaysia.

Nevertheless, the New Energy Policy counts the renewable

sources of energy as part of the plan to help optimize the
thermal availability while preserving the environment. In the
Eighth Malaysian Plan, Renewable Energy (RE) was
announced as the fifth fuel in the new Five Fuel Strategy in

International Conference on Energy and Environment 2006 (ICEE 2006) 8

 ORGANIZED BY UNIVERSITI TENAGA NASIONAL, BANGI, SELANGOR, MALAYSIA; 28-30 AUGUST 2006

References Appendix 1. The Capacity of Power Generation

Generation Capacity Generation Capacity

[1] Jehana Ermy Jamaluddin, 2000. Implementation of Plants (MW) Plants (MW)
ISO 14000 Series Environmental Management System Thermal Hydro
(EMS) in TNB Power Plants. BEE thesis submitted to Paka 1136 Pergau 600
UNITEN. Connaught 832 Temenggor 348
[2] Department of Environment, 1998. Environmental Bridge
Quality Report 1998. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Port Dickson 715 Bersia 72
Science, Technology and Environment Malaysia Pasir 729 Kenering 120
[3] Department of Environment, 2004. Environmental Gudang
Quality Report 2004. Kuala Lumpur: Ministry of Putrajaya 625 Sungai Piah 70
Science, Technology and Environment Malaysia Gelugor 398 Chenderoh 41
[4] Jamaluddin Md .Jahi, 1992. Air Quality: Klang Valley Manjung 2295 Kenyir 400
Region, Malaysia. International Supercities (IPP)
Conference on “Environmental Quality and Kapar (IPP) 2420 Cameron 262
Sustainable Development”, San Franscisco, U.S.A. Highlands
[5] Tenaga Nasional Berhad Generation YTL, Pasir 404
http://www.tnb.com.my/tnbg Gudang
[6] Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (IPP)
http://www.ktak.gov.my YTL, Paka 808
(IPP)
Port Dickson 440
Power (IPP)
Genting 720
Sanyen (IPP)
Pahlawan 334
Power (IPP)
Segari (IPP) 1303
Powertek 440
(IPP)
TTPC Perlis 675
GB3 (IPP) 650
Prai Power 350
Melawa 50
Tawau 36
Karambunai 120
Tanjung Bin 2100
Stratavest, 65
Sandakan
(IPP)
Sandakan 34
Power (IPP)
Janamanjung 2100

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