Loss of power two days ago at the Petronas Twin Towers and other major business centres in Kuala Lumpur was caused by two lightning strikes at high voltage cables, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) said yesterday.

The 20-minute power failure in parts of Jalan Imbi, Court Hill, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Bukit Bintang - the city's 'Golden Triangle' area - was a direct result of a power-trip in TNB's Pulu Udu sub-station following the lightning strikes.

Bernama carried a TNB statement which said that "the power disruption at 4.46pm followed two lightning strikes in less than a second on 275 kV high voltage cables between Serdang in Selangor and Pudu Ulu in the city".

TNB also said electricity was restored within five to 19 minutes in almost all affected areas.

Technical failure

Last month, a major power blackout hit Kuala Lumpur and several southern states, throwing traffic into chaos, trapping people in lifts and disrupting the fast train service (ERL) to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

TNB had attributed that major outage to a technical failure and had contracted consultants to investigate the matter.

Calls to compensate businesses and individuals - who suffered losses as a result of the incident which lasted several hours - may not be heeded as TNB chairperson Leo Moggie had reportedly said three weeks ago that there were no indications of the company's liability.