Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan met the managing director of CLP Power Hong Kong (CLP) today to express deep concern over the power outage incident that occurred in the Wong Tai Sin area last night.
 
Apart from pointing out that there have been a number of voltage dips and power supply interruption incidents recently, the Government said that the frequency of such incidents has led to concerns about whether CLP's service quality is on the decline.
 
It highlighted that this incident should not be treated as an isolated event, and stated that CLP needs to examine its company culture and management system for the entire power supply system to identify the root causes of the problem, make fundamental improvements to reduce the chances of similar incidents in the future, and maintain the stable and reliable power supply that Hong Kong has always been proud of.
 
At the meeting, Mr Tse made a request to CLP’s managing director to allocate resources for an independent consultant to conduct a re-examination of all voltage dips and power supply interruption incidents that occurred in the past three years, listing the causes, improvement measures, implementation status of the measures, and their effectiveness.
 
Part of the appeal calls for conducting a comprehensive review of the safety design of the power supply system, its capability to withstand the impact of external factors, the arrangements for maintenance and preventive maintenance, the procurement and inspection system for materials, the supervision and quality assurance standards, as well as personnel qualification, training and retraining requirements.
 
CLP is also being asked to provide comprehensive recommendations on how to enhance the stability and reliability of the power supply, and reduce the chances of similar incidents in the future.
 
The Electrical & Mechanical Services Department will be responsible for engaging the independent consultant who will report to the Director of Electrical & Mechanical Services (DEMS).
 
The department will form a task force with CLP to work on such requirements, with a view to completing the tasks and submitting a report within 12 months.
 
The DEMS will also invite local experts and scholars to establish a steering committee to work together in supervising the work of the independent consultant and advise on the report.
 
At the same time, the Environment & Ecology Bureau will continue to negotiate with CLP on modifying the Scheme of Control Agreement by introducing terms of penalty to facilitate a reduction in the occurrence of electrical incidents.
 
Regarding the power supply incident last night, the department has requested CLP to identify the cause of it and submit a detailed report within four weeks.