The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department said on Monday night it made the request at a meeting with the power firm earlier in the day, after hundreds of residents in Tsing Yi were affected by two electricity incidents in a week.
On Sunday, an 11kV underground cable joint failed at On Mei House in Cheung On Estate, leading to a partial power supply interruption affecting 388 customers for almost 1½ hours from 9.38am.
Hong Kong minister expresses disappointment to CLP Power chief over repeat outage
Hong Kong minister expresses disappointment to CLP Power chief over repeat outage
That incident followed one on New Year’s Day, when a voltage dip at a substation 200 metres (660 feet) away on Nga Ying Chau Street trapped more than a dozen residents in lifts and set off fire alarms in Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi, Ma On Shan and Sha Tin.
A spokesman for CLP Power, which serves Kowloon, the New Territories and most outlying islands, on Sunday said the two outages were not connected, but engineering personnel had been assigned to inspect the equipment at the estate.
The department said that during Monday’s meeting it asked CLP to immediately enhance the inspection of the power supply system in Tsing Yi and that it should complete inspections within this month.
The utility firm was also told to review the maintenance arrangements for its entire transmission and distribution system in the city to prevent similar incidents from happening again, a department spokesman added.
Hong Kong power price rises will be lower than inflation, environment chief says
Hong Kong power price rises will be lower than inflation, environment chief says
The department had earlier asked the firm to identify the cause of the incident and submit a detailed report on the incident within two weeks.
“In view of the recent power supply incidents, the [department] will step up inspections of the facilities and operations of the power companies to monitor their technical and electrical safety performance,” the spokesman added.
The Environment and Ecology Bureau also said on Sunday it was “extremely concerned and shocked” that two areas in Tsing Yi had suffered power outages within a week.
A bureau spokesman said the government had ordered the company to “launch a comprehensive review of its power supply system”, adding that it was required to carry out inspections and maintenance to prevent a repeat of the incident.