This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 28, 2017 - September 3, 2017
Apart from making sure the lights stay on, Tenaga Nasional Bhd takes its corporate responsibility (CR) very seriously. It has programmes in four main areas — social charity, education, sport and the environment.
Its wholly-owned Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten), where it cultivates the talent of the future, is one of the country’s better known institutions of higher learning and is among TNB’s most notable CR efforts. The university carries out cutting-edge research, with the ultimate goal of making it a world-class institution of higher learning.
Uniten has produced 24,770 graduates since its establishment in 1997, and notes an employability rate of 97.2% among its alumni. It ranked seventh in the Webometrics Malaysia 2015, which ranks universities’ web presence and visibility to indicate performance.
Uniten offers foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate studies in engineering, IT and business and finance. In 2016, it earned a four-star rating in the Ministry of Higher Education’s Malaysian Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA) assessment, which accredits and monitors the research performance of all higher education institutions in the country.
In 2014, Uniten established its Building Opportunities, Living Dreams 2020 (BOLD 2020) plan to transform itself into one of Malaysia’s top teaching and research universities. BOLD 2020 has been expanded into BOLD 2025, which aims to build Uniten into a globally competitive energy-focused university by 2025.
In 2016, Uniten’s Institute of Energy Policy and Research (IEPRe) presented valuable research findings through talks on the “Full Liberation of the Electricity & Gas Retail Market in Japan”, “Short and Medium-Term Outlook of the Global Oil & Gas Market”, and “Energy Security in Asia”.
In the same year, IEPRe researchers were among the main contributors to the Biennial Update Report on Greenhouse Gases to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, and participated in the East Asia think tank on major energy themes.
Furthering TNB’s support for education, Yayasan Tenaga Nasional offered a total of RM54 million to sponsor the higher education of 2,014 high-achieving Malaysian students at selected local and foreign universities.
Its unique social charity programme has been running since 2007. Under the Home for the Needy Programme, basic amenities, such as electricity, sanitation and water, are installed in the homes of the underprivileged. Since its inception, 385 families have benefited, including 98 in FY2016.
Its National Hockey Development Programme demonstrates TNB’s support for national sport. It has committed to contribute RM6 million a year for five years to the programme. Conducted in partnership with schools, via various state hockey associations, intermediate to advanced coaching is offered to hockey players in secondary schools.
TNB has several environment-related CR programmes as well. Through its Tree for a Tree Programme, TNB continued to fulfil its pledge to plant 12,000 trees in 12 locations across Peninsular Malaysia in 2016. As at August last year, it had spent RM685,000 to plant 5,800 trees in Pahang, Melaka, Perlis, Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu and Kedah, to replace each tree clear-felled to make way for the development of new electrical installations.
Moreover, TNB advocates the use of renewable energy in the community through its role in the Sustainable Energy Development Authority’s Feed-in-Tariff programme.
With that, the group fulfilled part of its community quota for the installation of solar photovoltaic systems, with a Capacity of 204kW and an additional 252kW, by end-2016 at homes for the aged, orphanages and training centres for the disabled.
This initiative is a collaboration with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.
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