ENG-1992 — Page 253

LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

The government has also approved the installation by CLP of four 600mw 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 respectively. The other two blocks will be commissioned within the periods 1998 to 2000 and 1999 to 2001. All of them will be fuelled by natural gas piped from the Yacheng 13-1 gas field off Hainan Island in China.

CAPCO is 60 per cent owned by Exxon Energy Limited and 40 per cent by CLP, while the associated transmission and distribution systems are wholly owned by CLP. CLP's present scheme of control agreement will expire on September 30, 1993. The government has entered into a new agreement with CLP, Exxon Energy Limited and their generating companies that will commence on October 1, 1993 and last for 15 years.

CLP's transmission system operates at 400kV, 132kV and 66kV, and distribution is effected mainly at 33kV, 11kV and 346 volts. The supply is 50 hertz alternating current, normally at 200 volts single phase or 346 volts three phase.

CLP has more than 170 primary and over 6903 secondary substations in its trans- mission and distribution network. An extra high voltage transmission system at 400kV to transmit power from the Castle Peak Stations to the various load centres was completed in 1986. It comprises a double-circuit overhead line system encircling the New Territories, underground cables and seven extra high voltage substations. Construction and planning work for the addition of new extra high voltage substations and for reinforcement of the existing system are in progress.

In HEC's supply areas, electricity is supplied entirely from the Lamma Power Station. At the end of 1992, the total installed capacity at the Lamma Power Station was 2 605mw. There are plans to add a further 350mw unit to Lamma in the mid-1990s.

HEC's transmission system operates at 275kV, 132kV and 66kV and distribution is effected mainly at 11kV and 346 volts. With the exception of a small proportion of 132kV overhead transmission lines, all supplies are transmitted and distributed by underground or by submarine cables. The supply is 50 hertz, 200 volts single phase and 346 volts three phase. Supplies at high voltage are also made available to consumers.

The transmission systems of CLP and HEC are interconnected by a cross-harbour link, thereby achieving cost savings to consumers through economic energy transfers between the two systems and a reduction in the amount of generating capacity that needs to be kept spinning as reserve against the tripping of other units. The interconnection, commissioned in 1981, currently has a capacity of 720mvA.

CLP's system is also interconnected with that of Guangdong General Power Company of China and electricity is exported to Guangdong Province each day. Such sales, which are made from existing generating capacity at off-peak times, are governed by an agreement with the government signed in March 1992 under which CLP's consumers receive priority of supply and 80 per cent of the profit from the sales.

Also, in July 1985, CLP signed a contract with the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company Limited for the supply of electricity starting from late 1986 for a period of ten years to the industrial zone of She Kou and the adjacent Che Wan area, both in Guangdong Province. The arrangements, which afford She Kou a reliable electricity supply without subsidy from Hong Kong consumers, is illustrative of the close co-operation on energy matters which has developed on both sides of the border.

On January 18, 1985, the Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of CLP) and the Guangdong Nuclear Investment Company (wholly owned by

209