On 27th of January 2007, IEEE Power Engineering Society Malaysia Chapter with Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and MNC-CIGRE organized the ‘first-of-its-kind’ event in Malaysia, EPSCom’07. The event brought together the industry’s power systems engineers, university’s researchers and future power engineers across Malaysia in a forum for exchanging knowledge and ideas on technical, economic and environmental issues associated with the production, delivery and use of electricity. EPSCom’07 was an exciting one-day competition designed to challenge undergraduate engineering students through power engineering quizzes and power system simulations for solving practical planning and operation problems. The competition was successfully held, organized by a team led by Ir. Dr. Zahrul Faizi Hussein. Seven universities participated in the competition where a team from UKM won the gold award woth of RM 3000 in cash, two teams from UNITEN won the silver and bronze awards and another team from UKM secured the Siemens PTI Special Award. The winners were celebrated in a prize-giving ceremony graced by the Universiti Tenaga Nasional Pro-Chancellor, Y.Bhg. Tan Sri Dato’ (Dr.) Ir. Haji Abu Zarim bin Haji Omar and member of Universiti Tenaga Nasional Board of Directors, Y.Bhg. Datuk Dr. Ir. Haji Ahmad Zaidee bin Laidin.
Similar competition was organized 2 years later on the 9th to 10th of January 2009, which was held in Pang-gung Seni, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in collaboration with Malaysia National Committee of CIGRE. EPSCOM’09 was hosted by UKM where the committees were appointed among the staffs of Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering, UKM. EPSCOM’09 continue the spirit of the competition which is to encourage a healthy competition among the higher learning institutions in Malaysia in the field of power system. In the competition, participants had to go through three main components; oral and written quizzes as well as project-based learning. The group from UKM that consists of three students had won the first place and secured the round cup as well as cash prizes worth of RM 9000. This was the last competition organized until it was revived back and rebranded, 11 years later in 2020.
Electrical Power System Simulation Competition 2020 (EPSSCOM 2020) has been recommended as the Runner-Up of the University Category with a support of maximum $300 in 2020 IEEE R10 EAC Challenge. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, the competition in 2020 was held fully online, organized by a team from UNITEN, led by the Assoc. Prof. Dr. Miszaina Osman, followed by the same format for the subsequent competition in 2021 hosted by Universiti Malaya under the leadership of Dr. Nurulafiqah Nadzirah Mansor. In 2022, the competition was back in almost fully physical mode with online option was given to the teams from outside of Malaysia. The physical competition in 2022 was hosted and held in UiTM Shah Alam, chaired by Dr. Kanendra Naidu. This competition has indeed become one of the IEEE PES Malaysia’s chapter flagship events and it is hoped that the competition could become one of the platforms for the undergraduate students to get expose to the real-life power system problem and to apply the theoretical knowledges that have been learned in the university to solve and win the competition.