Power has been fully restored after several regions across Malaysia suffered severe blackouts yesterday, plunging hotels, airports and other buildings into darkness and disrupting traffic, authorities said.

The power outage, which began early on Monday morning, hit the northern states of Perlis, Perak, Kelantan, Kedah, including the island resort of Langkawi as well as Penang, president and chief executive officer of the national power firm Tenaga Pian Sukro said.

The power disruption, which continued for more than four hours, was due to glitches in the power distribution system and not caused by sabotage or "low voltage capacity," Pian was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

Officials could not give an estimate of how many people had been affected by the blackout and said an investigation into the cause was still being carried out.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has ordered the power firm to find out the cause of the power failure.

"We need to know why it happened, so we can prevent it from recurring," Mahathir was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.

"It's good that they've managed to restore supply quickly but measures have to be taken to prevent a recurrence," he said.

KLIA hit, six flights delayed

The blackout lasted for about 40 minutes at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, with power being restored in stages, Abdul Hamid Ali, a senior general manager for airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings, told AFP.

He said six flights delayed with no other disruptions to operations.

While both Langkawi and Penang are popular tourist destinations, Penang is also regarded as Southeast Asia's Silicon Valley and houses hundreds of international manufacturing companies such as Intel, Motorola and Hitachi.

Sources at the Paradise Sandy Bay Hotel in Penang told AFP that despite having back-up generators to supply electricity, guest rooms were in darkness the blackout.

Staff at the Pelangi Beach Resort on Langkawi island also reported guest rooms being without electricity more than four hours after the onset of the power failure.

Banks and many offices escaped the effects of the blackout since Monday was a public holiday following National Day celebrations on Sunday.

On the streets, traffic lights failed to work and traffic police were deployed to control the flow of traffic.

Malaysia's biggest power failure was in 1996 when supplies were cut to most of peninsula Malaysia for over 12 hours.

A massive blackout recently threw much of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada into darkness, while London suffered a major blackout on Aug 28. - AFP