KUALA LUMPUR (June 16): Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) said it is committed to helping the government in overcoming the devastating effects of Covid-19 and will continue to extend its support and cooperation for the exit strategy under the National Recovery Plan, as announced by the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.
As the national electric utility corporation, TNB is prioritising power supply reliability to the hospitals, vaccine storage and vaccination centres and temporary security posts manned by the police and military personnel.
“Since the first lockdown in March 2020, TNB has contributed over RM33 million towards this end, and [is]currently focused on keeping more than 40 vaccine storage and over 400 vaccination centres running. This does not affect our existing commitment to provide reliable power supply to our 9 million customers nationwide. Our operations team continues to work every day despite the risks, driven by our purpose to keep the lights on for better and brighter lives, said its president and chief executive officer Datuk Baharin Din in a statement.
In support of the National Recovery Plan, Baharin said TNB is taking active measures to ensure that the group reaches herd immunity among its 35,000 workforce. “We are offering our premises as vaccine centres to help accelerate the national vaccination drive. These efforts complement TNB’s ongoing efforts to minimise the spread of the virus by reducing the operating hours of Kedai Tenaga, and moving transactions and enquiries from physical counters to digital platforms,” he said.
Baharin said TNB’s priorities for the National Recovery Plan are focused on four areas: saving lives, protecting the vulnerable, keeping the lights on, and driving economic recovery. “The positive impact of these four focus areas extends beyond the three indicators of the National Recovery Plan that relate to Covid-19 transmission figures, capacity of public healthcare system and the success of the national vaccination program,” he said.
Baharin also said TNB will further disburse assistance to the underprivileged groups through its various corporate responsibility programmes and voluntary efforts of its workforce, including through a voluntary salary deduction programme by TNB employees. “Since January 2021, TNB has directly allocated nearly RM9.5 million to more than 10,000 families whose livelihoods have been impacted by the pandemic, and continues to do so in each of its locations nationwide.”
In addition, TNB’s existing easy payment plan has been extended till year end, benefiting almost seven million customers, while disconnection of power remains suspended until the end of this month.
Also, a 10% discount to six selected sectors under the PEMERKASA package has been extended to the end of September, assisting over 11,500 customers, he added.
“We are also assuming key roles in supporting Malaysia’s economic recovery and this will be more prominent during the later phases of the National Recovery Plan. These comprise our ongoing capital expenditure investments to further modernise and upgrade our national grid, as well as leveraging on the wider TNB ecosystem to generate multiplier effects to the economy through our vendor development programs and upskilling initiative,” he said.
In the second Regulatory Period from 2018 to 2020, TNB said it has invested over RM7 billion in its vendor development programme, benefitting thousands of small and medium businesses.
A re-skilling initiative spearheaded by TNB’s training centre, Integrated Learning Solution (ILSAS) aims to provide training for up to 17,500 individuals by 2024 to support the nation’s energy transition.
“These forward-thinking initiatives ensure that TNB continues to help place the nation and rakyat in good stead as we try to accelerate the pace of recovery. To get back on a strong track of post-pandemic economic growth, collaboration across sectors, the people and the government is critical.
“For TNB, our role to support this growth over the next few years up to 2024 will be focused on ensuring a safe and resilient network system, meeting the growing and changing needs of our customers and supporting the nation’s energy transition, with a proposed investment of RM24 billion,” Baharin concluded.
