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of the year. At the two government quarries at Diamond Hill in Kowloon and Mount Butler on Hong Kong Island, which produce aggregates and road-surfacing mate- rials for government projects, new crushing machinery was purchased and was being installed to provide additional production capacity and to improve efficiency.
The materials-testing laboratories operated by the Civil Engineering Office of the Public Works Department carried out 77,580 tests on building materials; of these 8,780 were for private firms.
Public Utilities
Electricity
Hong Kong Island and the neighbouring islands of Ap Lei Chau and Lamma are supplied with electricity by the Hongkong Electric Co Ltd, while Kowloon and the New Territories, including Lantau and a number of outlying islands, receive their supply from the China Light and Power Co Ltd. The island of Cheung Chau is served by the Cheung Chau Electric Co. In addition, minor enterprises such as village co-operatives produce current for certain remote localities.
The three companies are investor-owned, and do not operate under a franchise. However, since 1964 the government has exercised a measure of financial control over the two main undertakings.
Safety aspects are covered by an Electricity Supply Ordinance. The supply voltage is normally 200 volts single-phase or 346 volts three-phase, four-wire, 50 hertz alternating current. For bulk consumers, supply is available at 11 kV and, in some locations, 6.6 kV.
In Kowloon and the New Territories, generation is carried out in part by the Peninsula Electric Power Co Ltd, an enterprise financed 60 per cent by Esso and 40 per cent by China Light; it owns the power stations at Tsing Yi (600 MW) and Hok Un 'C' (240 MW). Operation of these plants is in the hands of China Light, which also has its own station Hok Un ‘A' and 'B' (410 MW) and a number of diesel sets (4 MW).
Hongkong Electric has generating stations at North Point (336 MW) and Ap Lei Chau (245 MW). Including Cheung Chau's 3 MW, there is thus a combined capacity of 1,838 MW.
Considerable additional capacity is being erected or planned: at Tsing Yi, a further 920 MW is due to be installed by 1977, and at Ap Lei Chau, a further 250 MW by 1975.
Main electricity statistics for 1972, as well as electricity sales figures for the years 1970 to 1972, are shown in the tables in Appendix 30.
Gas
The Hong Kong and China Gas Co Ltd supplies Towngas to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The supply is available throughout the urban
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