23 October 2021 – The School of Electrical Engineering (SKE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), in collaboration with Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad as the main funder, will implement a community service project namely “Off-Grid Photovoltaic (PV) System for Raft Village Community of Tanjung Surat, Johor”, led by IVAT’s staff, Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Noorden. The raft village of Tanjung Surat is in an isolated area of Southeast Johor, Malaysia. Majority of the community live in so-called raft house without continuous electricity supply since its location is far from the nearest power utility source. Some of the community use a small diesel generator per house that can only supply up to six hours electricity per day. Under mutual collaboration of UTM and Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad, via a program called “Sadaqa House”, individual off-grid PV system will be developed and installed for each raft house at the village, which enables continuous electricity supply to a total of 13 houses. With the installation of the off-grid PV system and proper protection system, the community will be able to experience safe continuous electricity for the lighting and fan system. The total sponsored amount obtained to set up the off-grid PV system is RM87,800.00.
Therefore, to ensure the community preparedness towards the utilization of off-grid PV system and its basic maintenance, a knowledge transfer program has been successfully organized by SKE UTM in collaboration with IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Malaysia, Institut Latihan Perindustrian (ILP) Pasir Gudang and IEEE Student Branch UTM at the village. The program was supported by IEEE R10 Educational Activities Committee via “Reaching Local Initiatives 2021” grant. A total of 3 lecturers from SKE UTM, namely Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Noorden, Dr. Jasrul Jamani Jamian and Dr. Syed Norazizul Syed Nasir with 3 lecturers from ILP Pasir Gudang and 6 students of IEEE Student Branch UTM have participated in this knowledge transfer program. The program was attended by a total of 11 house residents who are the heads of families for the 13 houses in the village. With the use of an educational kit known as PVedukit UTM, easy-to-understand experiments related to the system such as shadow effect on solar panel output, the need to ensure solar panels are always 100% exposed to sunlight, battery requirements in supplying continuous electricity and the need simple maintenance were carried out with the community of the village. Timeline description of upcoming off-grid PV installation project and the necessary preparations were also disseminated to the community in the program. Increment of knowledge and preparedness among the community can be seen after the completion of the knowledge transfer program.
Some of the raft houses at Raft Village Tanjung Surat, Johor.
Sharing session on the introduction of solar PV system by Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Noorden to the raft village community of Tanjung Surat, Johor.
Easy-to-understand experimental session of solar PV system using an educational kit, PVedukit UTM with the raft village community of Tanjung Surat, Johor.
Group photo of participants of the knowledge transfer program for raft village community of Tanjung Surat, Johor.
Similar news is also available at another UTM webpage here.
By Dr. Zulkarnain Ahmad Noorden, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.