Power utility Tenaga Nasional said it will spend more than RM400 million to upgrade its systems in the capital Kuala Lumpur and central state of Selangor following recent power failures, a report said today.

Tenaga Chief Executive Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said the new system would be in place in two years.

"By 2007, the system strengthening exercise in central areas covering Selangor and Kuala Lumpur should be completed," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper.

Che Khalib said the investment was part of Tenaga's broader plans to overcome power outages such as the one that hit Kuala Lumpur and four Malaysian states last month.

Blackouts

Some major business districts in the Malaysian capital and surrounding areas were hit by a brief blackout last Thursday for the second time in just over a month.

A major power blackout hit Kuala Lumpur and several southern states on January 13, throwing traffic into chaos, trapping people in lifts and disrupting the fast train service to the international airport.

Che Khalib said the exercise should, among others, include installing a backup system which will be automatically activated whenever the existing transmission system fails.