Fire damages Tanjung Bin Power Plant’s pollutant removal system and chimney

PONTIAN: A fire broke out at the Tanjung Bin Power Plant (TBPP) in Kukup involving the facility’s chimney and pollutant removal system.

The Johor Fire and Rescue Department Operations Centre received an emergency call on the incident at 8.22pm on Thursday (Oct 2).

“Our operations team and assets arrived at the scene, located about 25km away, at around 8.48pm,” Pontian fire station operations commander Mahadir Mamat said in a statement on Friday (Oct 3).

He said the fire damaged the pollutant removal or flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system, measuring 74.6m by 7.2m by 79.28m.

It also damaged about 70% of the 200m-tall, 3m-wide chimney, he added.

FGD or scrubbing removes sulphur dioxide from industrial exhaust gases, primarily from coal-fired power plants, to reduce acid rain and other pollution.

“Eighteen firefighters from the Pontian Baru, Pontian and Pekan Nanas stations were involved in putting out the fire, assisted by four members of the Benut volunteer fire brigade,” Mahadir added.

The assets involved in the operation included two fire rapid tender vehicles, one 4WD and one fire engine.

Mahadir said the operation was also assisted by 10 members of the power plant operator’s emergency response team and four port firemen.

“The fire was brought under control by 9.46pm and the operation ended at 3.21am. We then handed over monitoring of the situation to (the power plant operator) Malakoff,” he said.

Mahadir said the cause of the fire and extent of the damage are still under investigation.

Energy company Malakoff owns and operates the TBPP, as well as the Tanjung Bin Energy Power Plant (TBE) near here.

TBPP is Malaysia’s first private coal-fired power plant with a total capacity of 1,890MW, while TBE is a separate 1,000MW facility.