Gas leak caused blackout last week: Tenaga
National power company Tenaga Nasional blamed a gas leak at a
circuit breaker at Port Klang power station near here (KL) for the
blackout in the city and four other states last week.
A bid to switch off the leaking circuit breaker for inspection also
failed, resulting in overloading and the gradual tripping of the
power grid in the southern states.
Fluctuating power in Johor even resulted in the state drawing power
from Singapore's power grid, but the Republic had to eventually
isolate itself from the Malaysian grid in order to prevent a
blackout there as well.
Tenaga Nasional released the findings from the inital
investigations to the local media yesterday.
Officals say the company's findings were similiar to those of
independent consultant Advance Power Solution (APS).
Tenaga's chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohamed Noh indicated,
however, that because power was restored promptly, it would not
offer a widely expected rebate to affected consumers, especially
businesses and factories.
"We have not received any claims so far. We will have discussions
with the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers and other parties to
find a solution," he told reporters.
The national utility gave a 10 per cent rebate for two months to
customers in 1996 after a peninsula - wide power outage plunged the
country into darkness for more than 14 hours.
Under fire from the public and government leaders, Tenaga had been
under pressure to offer something similiar this time.
Businesses and factories in highly industralised areas are still
counting their losses a week after last Thursday's lunch - hour
blackout.
Plants owned by national car company Proton and Honda were among
those affected, as well as hundreds of factories owned
multinationals throughout the city, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan,
Malacca and Johor... - Straits Times 21/01