Hong Kong’s CLP Power blames external factors for outage affecting over 2,000 households
- City’s largest energy provider says two underground cables supplying power to Wong Tai Sin district had joints with degraded insulation
Hong Kong’s largest energy provider has blamed external factors for causing faults in two underground cables supplying power to Wong Tai Sin district that plunged more than 2,000 households into darkness on a hot summer night last month.
Electricity firm CLP Power said in an investigation report submitted to the government on Tuesday that both 11kV cables had joints with degraded insulation, leading to the power disruption.
The company said it had detected a fault in an 11kV cable between Junction Road and Mei Tak House at around 1pm on June 12 and had arranged for an engineering team to carry out repairs.
Energy continued to be supplied by another 11kV cable until it too suffered a fault at around 8pm, cutting off power for 2,250 households.
“CLP Power conducted an investigation into the faulty cables and confirmed that each cable had a joint that had previously been interfered with by external factors, which gradually degraded the insulation and led to the two sequential faults on that day,” the company said.
The disruption affected four residential buildings, including Lions Rise, Mei Tak House at Mei Tung Estate and Lung Kwong House at Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate, as well as some neighbourhood shops, with at least four reports of people trapped in lifts.
