Alice Wu

Opinion | Hong Kong must demand more of power companies after series of failures

Recent power outages provide an opportune time for the government to reassess its relationship with Hong Kong’s electricity providers

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CLP Power workers carry out maintenance outside Lung Kwong House, in Lower Wong Tai Sin Estate, on June 13. The power company said a fault in an 11,000-volt underground cable in Wong Tai Sin caused power supply disruptions that left many customers in the dark. Photo: Jelly Tse

Alice Wu

Published: 9:30am, 17 Jun 2024Updated: 11:18am, 17 Jun 2024

It is less than a month since the Hong Kong government said it was “very concerned” about five incidents of major interruptions to the electricity supply on the grid operated by CLP Power in the first four months of the year.

The latest CLP outage – last Wednesday – left 2,250 households in Wong Tai Sin without power for more than four hours with some residents and businesses only getting power restored after midnight. As a result, the government updated its statement to “deep concern”. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan promptly met CLP Power officials in an attempt to hold the company accountable for the repeated power cuts.

Parts of Tsing Yi lost power twice in one week in January, and a falling overhead electrical cable caused blackouts in Yuen Long in March. There were voltage dips in late March and early April, with the one on April 6 leaving more than 150 people trapped in lifts.

Apologies for these repeated failures will not cut it. Whatever the cause, power outages endanger people’s lives, especially in a city of high-rise buildings. Hongkongers do not get a choice which power company they use. CLP Power provides electricity to Kowloon, the New Territories and most outlying islands, while HK Electric serves Hong Kong and Lamma islands.

Tse is right not to treat the latest incident as an isolated event. Among the demands the government made of CLP Power was a detailed report on Wednesday’s outage within four weeks and a review of all voltage dips and outages over the past three years. Tse also called for the company to list the causes of the disruptions, improvement measures, the status of implementing the steps and their expected effectiveness.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan at government headquarters in Tamar on March 1. Photo: Jonathan Wong

In addition, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department will establish a task force with CLP Power to complete safety reviews and submit another report within 12 months. This is the clearest indication yet of the government’s dissatisfaction with CLP Power, having already proposed extra penalty charges for major interruptions to the electricity supply before the Wong Tai Sin incident.