Malaysian power cut causes major losses

Malaysian power cut causes major losses

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A massive power failure which began Saturday in peninsular Malaysia and lasted up to 16 hours has caused major financial losses to industry and retailers forced to shut down.

"In terms of financial losses it is certainly very huge," said Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, adding the power failure was a major embarrassment to the country and that Malaysia must seek an alternative power distribution system.

Most factories in major industrial areas, particularly the "Silicon Island" of Penang, the capital Kuala Lumpur and southern Johore state, were either forced to shut down or operate at minimum capacity.

Production schedules were badly hit during the power failure, which lasted up to 16 hours in some areas. Thousands of factory workers were asked to return home as power was still not restored by midnight Saturday (1600 GMT).

Power supply was fully restored by 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) yesterday, a spokesman for state-owned power company Tenaga Nasional said.

The power cut, the worst this decade, was traced to the Paka power station in northeastern Terengganu state, which tripped at 5:17 p.m. (0917 GMT) Saturday.

A domino effect caused the national grid to collapse, shutting down supply at all power stations linked to the system.

The blackout caused traffic chaos in cities and industrial shutdowns across the country, while four children died when their house in central Perak state was destroyed by a fire believed to have been caused by a candle.

Kuala Lumpur police reported 236 road accidents to midnight Saturday, and 3,000 passengers were stranded at several railway stations in central Selangor state when 10 commuter trains either came to a halt or had their journeys cancelled.

Anwar said the government must review the country's power supply, referring to a similar outage in September, 1992 when peninsular Malaysia was also plunged into darkness.

A bolt of lightning struck four power lines in Terengganu in that blackout and knocked out 15 power stations on the west coast. Factories, retailers and hotels sustained 220 million ringgit (US$88 million) in losses. Power was not fully restored for three days.

In June last year, 40 manufacturers in Penang suffered $16 million in losses during a power cut caused by a fire that destroyed cables carrying electricity to the island.

Tenaga Nasional should be held responsible for the fault, he said.

"If the fault was caused by a natural disaster, it is understandable. However, from the report we have received so far, it appears that it is due to equipment failure," he added.

A senior minister lambasted Tenaga, saying such power outages would affect the country's image as an investment center.

"Factories as well as businesses nationwide are losing millions of ringgit, " said Lim Keng Yaik, the primary industries minister, referring to the 10, 000 power interruptions since September, 1994.