Electricity

The Hongkong Electric Company Limited (HEC) supplies Hong Kong Island and the neighbouring islands of Ap Lei Chau and Lamma; CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power) supplies Kowloon and the New Territories, including Lantau and several outlying islands. The supply to consumers is at 50Hz alternating current while the voltage is 220 volts single-phase and 380 volts three-phase.

The two supply companies are investor-owned. The Government monitors their performance through mutually agreed Scheme of Control Agreements. Current agreements with CLP Power and HEC came into effect on October 1, 1993 and January 1, 1994, respectively. Both will last for 15 years. The first five-yearly interim review was completed in early 1999. The next review will be carried out in 2003. The agreements require each company to seek the approval of the Government for certain aspects of their financial plans, including projected tariff levels. The agreements do not grant the companies any exclusive rights. They are not franchises, nor do they define a supply area for either company or exclude new entrants to the market.

Electricity for HEC's supply areas is supplied from the Lamma Power Station. At the end of 2001, total installed capacity (i.e. rated power output of generators) at the Lamma Power Station was 3 305 megawatts (MW). In May 2000, the Government approved HEC's new power station at the Lamma Extension and the installation of the first 300MW gas combined-cycle generator there. The unit is scheduled to be commissioned in 2004. HEC's transmission system operates at 275 kilovolts (kV), 132kV and 66kV and distribution is effected mainly at 11kV and 380 volts.

The Castle Peak Power Company Limited (CAPCO), which is 60 per cent owned by ExxonMobil Energy Limited (formerly known as Exxon Energy Limited) and 40 per cent by CLP Power, supplies electricity to CLP Power from its Black Point (1 875MW), Castle Peak (4 108MW) and Penny's Bay (300MW) power stations, with the total installed capacity being 6 283MW. Two more 312.5MW generators are scheduled to be commissioned at the Black Point power station during 2005-06.

The associated transmission and distribution systems are wholly owned by CLP Power. Its transmission system operates at 400kV, 132kV and 66kV, and distribution is effected mainly at 33kV, 11kV and 380 volts.

The CLP Power and HEC transmission systems are interconnected by a cross-harbour link. This provides emergency back-up and achieves cost savings to consumers through economic energy transfers between the two systems and a reduction in the amount of generating capacity that needs to be kept as spinning reserve against the tripping of other units. The interconnection, commissioned in 1981, currently has a total capacity of 720 megavolt-amperes (MVA) (i.e. 720 000 kilovolt-amperes (kVA)).

CLP Power's system is also interconnected with that of the Guangdong Electric Power Holding Company (formerly named the Guangdong General Power Company) in the Mainland and electricity is exported to Guangdong Province. Such sales are made from existing reserve generating capacity and are governed by an agreement with the Government, signed in March 1992, under which CLP Power's consumers receive priority of supply and 80 per cent of the profit from the sales.

In 1985, the Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CLP Holdings Limited) and the Guangdong Nuclear Investment Company (wholly owned by the Chinese Ministry of Nuclear Industry) established the Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company, to build and operate a nuclear power station at Daya Bay in Guangdong. This comprises two 984MW pressurised water reactors which went into commercial operation in February and May 1994, respectively. CLP Power undertook to buy about 70 per cent of the station's power to meet part of the longer-term demand for electricity in its supply area.

Through its affiliated company, the Hong Kong Pumped Storage Development Company Limited, CLP Power has the right to use 50 per cent of the 1 200MW capacity of Phase 1 of the Guangzhou Pumped Storage Power Station, at Conghua. Off-peak electricity from the CAPCO system and Guangdong Nuclear Power Station is used to pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper one. The water is allowed to flow downhill during the day to generate electricity to meet Hong Kong's peak demand.

The Government signed Demand Side Management (DSM) Agreements with the respective power companies in May 2000 and approved the companies' DSM Resource Plans the next month. The power companies implemented their three-year DSM programmes, including rebate schemes for lighting and air-conditioning systems for non-residential customers, as well as other education and informational schemes, starting from July 2000. CLP Power and HEC ceased accepting new applications for joining the lighting rebate schemes in July and August 2001, respectively, due to exhaustion of the allocated budgets. The need for extending the rebate scheme to residential customers is being reviewed by the Government.

The Electricity Ordinance, with its subsidiary regulations, is the main enabling legislation on electrical safety. It sets out the legal framework encompassing all the areas within which the concerned legislation shall apply, including the registration of electrical workers/contractors and competent persons, the safety standards and requirements for electricity supply, electricity supply lines, electrical wiring and products.

Since 1990, the regulations concerning registration of electrical workers and contractors, the safety of electrical wiring, and the supply of safe household electrical products have come into effect in stages. At December, some 8 000 electrical contractors and 51 500 electrical workers held valid registration.

A new regulation, namely the Electricity Supply Lines (Protection) Regulation (ESLPR), commenced full operation from April 1 to protect electricity supply lines from damage during works activities, in the interests of safety and of ensuring the continuity of electricity supply. A Code of Practice on Working Near Electricity Supply Lines was published in June 2000 to provide general guidance on how to satisfy the requirements of the ESLPR. Some 570 competent persons have been approved under the ESLPR for locating underground electricity cables since June 2000.

In 2001, in enforcing the Electricity Ordinance, the Government conducted 13 442 site inspections to check the safety standards of electrical installations and electrical product supply outlets, and 390 prosecutions were instituted against violations.