LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES
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An Interactive Voice Response System was enhanced to incorporate new features of self-meter-reading and phone-call-for-form services.
Efforts to promote the autopay service continued, and the number of consumer accounts using autopay for payment of water charges reached 281 000, or about 13 per cent of all consumers. The Payment-by-Phone service was also well received and the number of consumers registered to use this service reached 214 000 at the end of 1995, or about 10 per cent of all consumers.
A new Customer Enquiry Centre was opened in Tuen Mun on July 28, 1995 to provide enquiry and other services to the residents in the northwestern New Territories. In May, the department announced its achievements against performance targets for the past year, and these showed improvements over those of the previous year in most areas. Most achievement rates were close to, or reached, 100 per cent. New enhanced performance targets were also publicised.
Electricity
The Hongkong Electric Company Limited (HEC) supplies Hong Kong Island and the neighbouring islands of Ap Lei Chau and Lamma; China Light and Power Company Limited (CLP) supplies the whole of Kowloon and the New Territories, including Lantau and several outlying islands. The supply to consumers is at 50Hz alternating current while the voltage is being upgraded to 220 volts single-phase and 380 volts three-phase from 200 and 346 volts, respectively.
The two supply companies are investor-owned and do not operate on a franchise basis. The government monitors their financial arrangements through mutually- agreed scheme of control agreements. New agreements with CLP and HEC came into effect on October 1, 1993, and January 1, 1994, respectively. Both will last for 15 years. The agreements require each company to seek the approval of the government for certain aspects of their financing plans, including projected tariff levels.
Electricity for HEC's supply areas is supplied from the Lamma Power Station. At the end of 1994, the total installed capacity at the Lamma Power Station was 2 605MW. A new 350MW unit was commissioned in late 1995. The government has also approved the installation by HEC of another 350MW unit at the Lamma Power Station in late 1997.
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HEC's transmission system operates at 275kV, 132kV and 66kV and distribution is effected mainly at 11kV and 380 volts. Apart from a small proportion of 132kV overhead transmission lines, all supplies are transmitted and distributed by under- ground or submarine cables.
The Castle Peak Power Company Limited (CAPCO), which is 60 per cent owned by Exxon Energy Limited and 40 per cent by CLP, supplies electricity to CLP from its Castle Peak 'A' (1 752MW), Castle Peak 'B' (2 708MW) and Penny's Bay (300MW) power stations and two gas turbines at Tsing Yi (150MW), with the total installed capacity being 4910MW. Tsing Yi 'A' and 'B' Power Stations (1 520MW) were decommissioned in stages over 1994 and 1995.
The government has approved CLP's installation of four 625MW blocks of additional generating capacity, the first two of which will be installed in a new power station at Black Point, Tuen Mun, in 1996 and 1997. The other two 625MW blocks will be split into four 312.5MW units and commissioned in 1998, 1999, 2000 and