Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan summoned the company’s boss to request “fundamental improvements” to its culture and electricity supply management system. He also questioned whether CLP’s service quality was “on the decline” given the number of power disruptions in the past six months. The Post looks at the mounting pressure on CLP to improve its services, as six electrical incidents have been reported so far this year.
The blackout in Wong Tai Sin on Wednesday last week was the utility’s sixth and Hong Kong’s worst power disruption this year, affecting about 2,250 households and businesses. Its coverage extended from the Lions Rise private residential complex in Wong Tai Sin to as far as the Mei Tung public housing estate in the neighbouring Kowloon City district. The Fire Services Department recorded at least five reports of passengers trapped in lifts.
CLP said the blackout began at 8.02pm and lasted until 12.11am the following day, but some residents said electricity only came back in the early hours of last Thursday.
Residents were seen waiting on the streets because their homes had become too warm. A restaurant also said it recorded a loss of at least HK$10,000 (US$1,300) from food spoilage due to the loss of power to water tanks and refrigerators. A fire in a substation on Nga Ying Chau Street in Tsing Yi on New Year’s Day led to a voltage dip that saw 20 lift entrapment reported in parts of the New Territories.
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