PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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Chau is served by the Cheung Chau Electric Company Limited. In addition, minor enterprises, such as some village co-operatives, produce current for remote localities. The three companies are investor-owned and do not operate under franchise. How- ever, the government does exercise a measure of profit control over the two main undertakings.
The China Light and Power Company supplies electricity to Kowloon and the New Territories, including Lantau and a number of outlying islands.
Generation of electricity is carried out partly by China Light and partly by the Peninsula Electric Power Company Limited (PEPCO), an enterprise financed 60 per cent by Esso and 40 per cent by China Light. PEPCO owns the power stations at Tsing Yi ‘A' (720 MW), Tsing Yi 'B' (842 MW) and Hok Un 'C' (240 MW). Operation of these plants is in the hands of China Light, which also has its own stations at Hok Un 'A' and 'B' (total 410 MW) and a number of diesel sets (total 6 MW).
Hong Kong Electric has generating stations at North Point (271 MW) and Ap Lei Chau (631 MW). A generating plant capable of producing a further 125 MW is due to be commissioned at Ap Lei Chau in March, 1978. The installed capacity of the Cheung Chau Electric Company is 7 MW. In all, the three undertakings have a com- bined capacity of 3,127 MW.
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Transmission is carried out at 132 kV and 66 kV, while distribution is effected mainly at 33 kV, 11 kV and 346 volts. The supply is 50 hertz alternating current, normally at 200 volts single-phase or 346 volts three-phase. For bulk consumers, supply is available at 33 kV and 11 kV.
Main electricity statistics for 1977, as well as electricity sales figures for the years 1975 to 1977, are shown in Appendix 34.
Gas
The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited supplies Towngas to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. The supply is available throughout the urban areas, including Aberdeen, Repulse Bay and Stanley on Hong Kong Island, and the industrial towns of Kwun Tong, Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan and neighbouring Tsing Yi Island. Towngas also has expanded to the area north of Lion Rock with the installation of a gas main along the second Lion Rock Tunnel to serve the Sha Tin area. At the end of 1977, the Towngas distribution network totalled 613 kilometres.
A significant development is the availability of Towngas to residents in the new Housing Authority estates. Lai Yiu Estate, overlook Tsuen Wan, was piped first followed by Cheung Ching Estate on Tsing Yi Island, Yue Wan Estate in Chai Wan, Nam Shan Estate in Tai Hang Tung and Wo Che Estate in Sha Tin. Additionally, the new Ngau Chi Wan, Pak Tin and Shun Lee estates, as well as the Fu Shan Estate in Hammer Hill, are now being piped for Towngas.
Towngas production is centred at Ma Tau Kok in Kowloon. Hong Kong Island is supplied by two submarine gas mains across the harbour. The total installed capacity of the station is 900,000 cubic metres a day, produced by six naphtha plants.
Gas is sold on a thermal basis (one therm=106 megajoules). The heat content value of Towngas is 17 megajoules per cubic metre. The total quantity of gas sold in 1977 was 2.1 million gigajoules, compared with 1.9 million in 1976. The number of Towngas customers increased from 64,362 to 80,026 during 1977.