Lawmaker blasts power companies over blackout 'numbers game'

The administration's new punishment mechanism against the SAR's two power giants for major blackout incidents is like a "numbers game," as the punishment might be offset by rewards for reliable power supply, lawmaker Edward Leung Hei said.

Hongkong Electric and CLP Power might be "punished once and rewarded twice" under the current mechanism, he said, urging the two power companies to bear more social responsibility during major incidents.

Speaking on radio yesterday, Leung, from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said it will be hard to trigger the punishment mechanism, which is based on a new "customer interruption duration" indicator - the number of affected customers multiplied by the blackout duration.

CLP will see a 0.015 percent decline in their permitted rate of return, or around HK$20 million if the interruption duration exceeds 15 million minutes (over 10,000 days) in total, while HKE will lose HK$10 million for a 5 million minutes interruption duration, the authorities said.

Leung explained: "Taking the massive blackout incident on Hong Kong Island in April as an example, [HKE] caused 2 million minutes interruption, meaning even such a major incident cannot trigger the punishment mechanism."

He said the authorities and the two power companies are "playing a numbers game" as the penalty will be calculated by an average interruption time throughout the year instead of a single accident.

"For example, if a company caused a blackout lasting for three or four hours [with high interruption duration to trigger penalty], it still may not be punished after calculating the average time for each blackout throughout the year as there might be many short ones," he said.

"This calculating method is unreasonable and we should impose a penalty for each accident," he added.

Leung said he understands it is hard for the administration to significantly adjust the companies' permitted profits and admitted the companies are able to provide a stable power supply. However, HKE and CLP should bear more social responsibilities for major accidents, he said.

Meanwhile, Energy Advisory Committee chairman Jimmy Kwok Chun-wah said the fuel cost is expected to remain stable in the coming year, and the electricity charge will therefore remain relatively stable.

He believes residents would welcome the drop in electricity charges next year, with HKE cutting the charge by 16 percent and CLP by 7.4 percent.