Hong Kong’s reputation marred by power outages
- Hong Kong rightly takes pride in having one of the world’s most efficient and reliable electricity supplies but recent interruptions of service leave city with a black eye
The government has a short fuse when it comes to outages that leave people without power. Hence “shock” and “disappointment” with one of the city’s two energy suppliers over two close but unrelated incidents.
People tend to take electricity supply for granted. It is important therefore that CLP sheds more light on two outages in the same area.
CLP and Hong Kong Electric have a reputation for reliability, which is paramount in a crowded, high-rise international city where electricity is critical for commerce and comfort.
It is understandable that officials should reflect public concerns and confusion after a second electricity outage struck in the same locality in a week, affecting hundreds of residents at a public housing estate in Tsing Yi.
The Environment and Ecology Bureau said it was “extremely concerned and shocked”. It said Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan had expressed his “great disappointment” to CLP Power managing director Joseph Law Ka-chun.