Interview: Q&A on the Go Live of Copperleaf at Tenaga Nasional Berhad
The Copperleaf® Decision Analytics Solution is now live at Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), an electricity generation, transmission, and distribution company that serves over 9 million customers throughout Peninsular Malaysia. The Copperleaf solution provides stakeholders with improved transparency on investment evaluation and the ability to optimise the expenditure plan to meet CAPEX constraints and earnings targets. This allows TNB to develop the highest-value plan to support its strategic goals, without jeopardising asset performance and system reliability.
We spoke to Jun Nian Lim, Manager, Enterprise Asset Management Systems at TNB, Ezatul Farita binti Mohd Rosdi, Asset Investment Planning Manager for Grid Division at TNB, and Guy Soulliere, Customer Experience Team Lead at Copperleaf, about the implementation and how it has helped the organisation on its asset management journey.
Can you share a bit about your roles at TNB and your main goals for this project?
Jun Nian: “As the Manager of Enterprise Asset Management Systems, I was responsible for project managing the Copperleaf implementation at TNB.”
“My main goal was to deliver the project successfully and ensure TNB’s expectations were met. Additionally, one of our key priorities as an organisation is to implement systems that support our digital transformation journey.”
Ezatul: “I manage Asset Investment Planning (AIP) for TNB’s Grid Division which includes assets with voltage levels of 132 kV, 275 kV and 500 kV. I also create and establish investment evaluation tools to assess potential investment options and ensure all of the Grid Division’s investments are justifiable and bring value to TNB.”
“Our goals were to establish and develop a platform to automate investment entry, evaluation, and optimisation, and ensure that the large number of investments managed by TNB’s Grid Division will generate value for the company and our customers. Additionally, we wanted our AIP processes to assist the Grid Division in meeting the regulator’s requirements by providing robust, defensible short- and long-term investment plans.”
We were able to learn best practices and gain insight into the common value measures used by other utilities.
Ezatul Farita Binti Mohd Rosdi
Asset Investment Planning Manager for Grid Division
TNB
What were the key things you felt made the project successful?
Ezatul: “Full commitment and support from the project team, expert advice from Copperleaf, knowledge sharing with other utilities, and a well-defined scope and requirements.”
Were there any lessons learned?
Jun Nian: “We learned the importance of formulating a solid test plan and assembling the right resources for testing.”
What are the key benefits you think you’ll get out of implementing Copperleaf?
Jun Nian: “We’ve established a consistent, structured investment methodology that that allows us to consider risks, KPIs, financial and non-financial benefits, costs, resources, etc.—and understand the trade-offs of different investment strategies.”
Together, we created a more consistent and thorough process to evaluate our investment portfolios, which will result in better business outcomes for TNB.
Jun Nian Lim
Manager, Enterprise Asset Management Systems
TNB
Have there been any other added benefits?
Ezatul: “We were able to learn best practices and gain insight into the common value measures used by other utilities.”
How would you describe the experience you had working with Copperleaf?
Jun Nian: “It took a shorter time than expected to be able to agree on a common definition of value and get all stakeholders speaking the same language. Together, we created a more consistent and through process to evaluate our investment portfolios, which will result in better business outcomes for TNB.”
What’s next on your asset management journey?
Ezatul: “Next on our asset management journey is to make good use of all asset data and ensure our asset lifecycle systems (AIPM, GPMS, APMS, CTIS) are fully integrated and work well together.”
View other success stories to learn how Copperleaf clients have been able to improve their business outcomes.