General manager of NEA’s Tuas facility fined $145k over 2021 explosion that killed 2 men

SINGAPORE – The general manager of the Tuas Incineration Plant (TIP) has been fined $145,000 after a 2021 explosion led to the deaths of two employees.

On Nov 20, Ng Wah Yong, 56, pleaded guilty to one charge under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

This comes just two days after Ng’s employer, the National Environment Agency (NEA), was fined $230,000 for safety lapses in the 2021 TIP explosion.

The explosion at the Tuas plant on Sept 23, 2021, resulted in the deaths of two long-time employees, Mr Kwok Yeow Wai and Mr Wee Eng Leng. A third employee, engineer Low Yin Choon, was seriously injured.

Mr Kwok, Mr Wee and Mr Low were sent to troubleshoot a fault and were inside an electrical switch room when the blast occurred.

Mr Kwok, 65, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr Wee, 64, and Mr Low, 59, had burn injuries and were taken to hospital, where Mr Wee died three days later.

NEA had said after the incident that all three were senior staff members of the plant’s electrical maintenance branch, each with more than 35 years of service.

Besides Ng, another NEA officer, Christopher Lee Yew Binn, 50, who was director of the waste infrastructure operations and management division at the time of the incident, is scheduled to undergo a pre-trial conference on Nov 28.

Lee also faces a single charge similar to Ng’s.

The court heard on Nov 20 that Ng was appointed general manager of the TIP some time in 2018, with duties including overseeing employee safety and health at the plant, as well as workplace safety.

The charge focused on two major failures on his part as general manager of the plant: failing to ensure that the permit-to-work (PTW) system for high-voltage switchgear racking work complied with regulatory requirements, and failing to establish safe working procedures for such operations.

Ng’s lawyer, Ms Josephine Chee, argued that the arc flash explosion occurred because of an extremely rare fault in the switchgear’s safety mechanism that prevented the circuit breaker from activating on the day.

She said Ng had inherited the systems and procedures that had been established and practised at TIP for decades after he was appointed general manager in 2018.

She pointed out that Ng had relied on the authorised personnel, the licensed electrical worker, to carry out high-voltage switchgear racking work in compliance with current regulations.

Ms Chee also added that while it was true there was no established safe work procedure for high-voltage racking work, other safety control measures – such as training provided to the electrical maintenance branch team and signage placed around switchgear equipment – were present.

In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Agnes Chan said the fact that the team carried out prohibited live racking, or that the dislodged piston jammed the circuit breaker, only shows how the explosion happened chronologically.

“These two (factors) do not detract from how the agency and Ng’s failures had contributed to the two deaths and one serious injury,” said the prosecutor.

The DPP said the PTW system was defective as it lacked an essential gatekeeping function that would promote safety in work procedures, allowing those without the necessary qualifications to issue permits for hazardous work.

Ng was also at fault as he did not make clear the safe working procedures for high-voltage switchgear racking work at the TIP.

“Ng did not exercise due diligence to ensure the agency established clear, safe working procedures. There were no clear instructions given to the workers on the day of the accident that could guide them in such a high-risk environment where they are working with high-voltage apparatus,” added the DPP.

DPP Chan also said the trio had entered the switchgear room after another engineer flagged that he was unable to remotely switch off an induced draft fan after maintenance work on the fan in the morning.

He then issued a PTW, which led the trio to the switch room to troubleshoot, even though he was not legally qualified to issue such a permit.

The trio was unable to trip the circuit breaker despite multiple attempts. At one point, the current flowing into the induced draft fan surged.

The explosion occurred after Mr Kwok and Mr Wee carried out prohibited live racking work – as the current was still flowing.

On Nov 18, NEA pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to take necessary measures to ensure the safety and health of its employees at work.

District Judge Luke Tan agreed with the prosecution then that there were three lapses in work safety measures that led to the explosion in 2021.

These were a failure to ensure the PTW system for high-voltage switchgear racking work complied with regulations, a lack of proper equipment, such as fire-retardant clothing for employees at the facility, and the lack of safe work procedures.

Senior Counsel Jason Chan, who represented NEA, said on Nov 18 that while the agency deeply regrets the incident, the explosion was not caused by the lapses it is pleading guilty to.

But the judge rejected arguments by the defence, which had attributed the arc flash explosion to prohibited live racking work and a jammed piston.

In throwing out the argument that the explosion was not NEA’s fault, the judge said multiple areas of failure on the part of NEA contributed to the conditions that led to the incident.

In a statement released after the fine was meted out, NEA said it is taking responsibility for the shortcomings cited, including its PTW system, control measures and safety procedures for high-voltage work at the plant.

The agency halted operations at the incineration plant in February 2022 after 36 years of service, as planned. The facility was eventually decommissioned in July 2022.

During its 36 years of operations, the plant had no other serious or fatal work injuries.