LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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carried out only by qualified personnel, electrical workers and contractors who possess the necessary qualifications and experience will have to be registered before they will be allowed to practise. The registration of electrical workers started on November 2, 1990, while registration of electrical contractors is planned to commence a year later. It is intended to register all qualified electrical workers and contractors in the industry before the middle of 1992 after which those major provisions of the new electricity legislation will become effective.
In May 1990, the government decided that the electricity supply voltage in Hong Kong should be upgraded from 200 volts single phase or 346 volts three phase to 220 volts single phase or 380 volts three phase. A Supply Voltage Advisory Committee was then set up in February 1991 to advise on the implementation of voltage upgrading in the territory. The voltage upgrading is planned to be carried out in three phases and completed within seven years. Phase I conversion will cover existing installations inside government buildings and will be completed within about 18 months. Phase II conversion will cover existing installations in Housing Authority buildings and is estimated to take about two years to complete. Phase III conversion will cover remaining installations of the private sector buildings and this phase will take about three years to complete. Phase I implementation programme started on August 1990 and is progressing satisfactorily.
Main electricity statistics and sales figures are at Appendix 36.
Gas
Gas is widely used throughout the territory for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. Two main types of fuel gas are available: Towngas, distributed by Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (HKCG); and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), supplied by major oil companies based in Hong Kong, namely Shell, Mobil, Esso, Caltex, Hong Kong Oil, China Resources and British Petroleum. Towngas is mainly supplied as a manufactured gas, but for some customers substitute natural gas (SNG) is supplied under the Towngas trademark. The constituents of LPG are butane and propane mixed in approximate proportions of 75 and 25 per cent respectively.
The total number of gas customers in Hong Kong is estimated to be in the order of 1.78 million. In 1991, Towngas accounted for 65 per cent of the total fuel gas sold in energy terms and LPG for 35 per cent.
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HKCG manufactures Towngas at two works, one located at Ma Tau Kok and the other in the Tai Po Industrial Estate. Both use naphtha as a feedstock. They currently have output capacities of 3.6 and 2.8 million cubic metres per day respectively. In order to meet the increasing demand for Towngas, HKCG has started the Phase II development at its gas production plant in Tai Po. This will double the capacity of the plant to 8.4 million cubic metres per day when completed in 1992.
Towngas is distributed through an integrated distribution system to about 834 000 customers for cooking and heating purposes. The main network extends to the urban areas of Hong Kong Island including Aberdeen, Repulse Bay, Stanley and Ap Lei Chau, Kowloon and many new towns in the New Territories, including Sha Tin and Tai Po, and Tsing Yi Island. HKCG is currently constructing a 90-kilometre network of 600-millimetre diameter transmission pipeline in the New Territories. The new transmission line is designed to operate at elevated pressure and will provide an additional 0.8 million cubic metres of 'line pack' storage capacity.