Following the power outage accident in Wong Tai Sin area last night(12th), Director of Environmental Protection Department, Xie Zhanhuan, met with the CEO of CLP, Lawrence Lok, expressing extreme concern about the incident.

A government spokesperson said that stable and reliable power supply is essential to the lives of Hong Kong citizens and various economic activities. Regarding the recent frequent power drops and supply interruptions, it is believed that CLP needs to start by reviewing its corporate culture and the management system of the entire power supply system, finding out where the problem lies, and making improvements from the root.

Xie Zhanhuan requested CLP to invest and hire independent consultants from the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department to re-examine all power drops and supply interruptions over the past three years, list the causes, improvement measures, and the implementation status and effects of the measures; comprehensively review the safety design of the power supply system, its ability to resist external factors, maintenance and preventive maintenance arrangements, material procurement and acceptance system, supervision and quality assurance level, personnel qualifications, training and retraining requirements; and make comprehensive recommendations on how to improve the stability and reliability of power supply and reduce the chance of future accidents.

The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department will form a special working group with CLP to complete the work within 12 months and submit a report. The Environmental Protection Department will also continue to discuss with CLP about amending the Regulation Plan Agreement to increase penalty clauses, in order to reduce power accidents. Regarding the power supply accident last night, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department has requested CLP to find out the entire incident and cause as soon as possible, and submit a detailed report within four weeks of the incident.