Manufacturers today pressed state-owned utility giant Tenaga Nasional to pay compensation for a major power blackout that hit one-third of the country despite the firm being absolved by the government.

The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) said 322 of its members had submitted direct losses of nearly RM73 million and Tenaga was answerable to its stakeholders.

It said an Energy Ministry's directive to the Energy Commission to conduct a technical audit indicated there could have been technical weaknesses in the transmission facilities and system.

"Under such circumstances, FMM is of the view that the need for Tenaga to fulfill its moral obligation towards its affected customers and their losses is reinforced," it said.

The Energy, Water and Communications Ministry earlier this week said Tenaga was not liable for the Jan 13 power outage because there was no evidence of negligence.

Two other blackouts

The blackouts lasted several hours and affected Kuala Lumpur, the new Putrajaya administrative capital and the southern states of Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.

FMM also urged Tenaga to set up efforts to improve reliability, quality and supply of power, and to establish a permanent help desk for the manufacturing sector.

Tenaga earlier rejected calls by consumers and manufacturers for compensation but said it would invest more than RM400 million to upgrade its systems to prevent future power failures.

Critics said the company has not moved fast enough to plug weaknesses in the system nine years after an embarrassing national 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.