State-owned utility giant Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is not liable for a major power blackout that hit one-third of Malaysia two months ago, the government said yesterday.

The Energy, Water and Communications Ministry said it had studied reports submitted by Tenaga, the Energy Commission and an independent expert on the Jan 13 power outage that lasted several hours in Kuala Lumpur, the new Putrajaya administrative capital and the southern states of Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.

"Based on the three reports, it was concluded that no evidence of negligence existed on the part of the operators at the National Load Dispatch Centre and on TNB," it said in a statement.

"TNB is not liable for the blackout. Any issue on rebate should be solely decided by TNB at its own discretion."

The ministry has ordered the Energy Commission to be more proactive in regulating the industry and to conduct a technical audit on transmission facilities to identify weaknesses in the system and to take mitigation measures to prevent future outages.

System upgrade

Tenaga earlier rejected calls by consumers and manufacturers for millions of ringgit in compensation for the power outage. But it said it would invest more than RM400 million to upgrade its systems to overcome power failures.

But critics said the company has not moved fast enough to plug weaknesses in the system nine years after an embarrassing national power blackout in August 1996 that crippled peninsula Malaysia for up to 16 hours.

Two similar power outages occurred in the capital last year, while in September 2003 a major failure hit several northern Malaysian states.