ENG-1995 — Page 270

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LAND, PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES

2001. All will be fuelled by natural gas piped from the Yacheng 13-1 gas field off Hainan Island in China.

The associated transmission and distribution systems are wholly owned by CLP. Its transmission system operates at 400kV, 132kV and 66kV, and distribution is effected mainly at 33kV, 11kV and 380 volts. CLP has 182 primary and 8 398 secondary sub- stations in its transmission and distribution network.

An extra-high-voltage transmission system at 400kV was completed in 1986 to transmit power from the Castle Peak Stations to the various load centres. Currently it comprises a double-circuit overhead line system encircling the New Territories, underground cables and nine extra-high-voltage sub-stations. Construction and planning work for the addition of new extra-high-voltage sub-stations and for reinforcement of the existing system is in progress.

The transmission systems of CLP and HEC are interconnected by a cross-harbour line. This provides emergency back-up and achieves 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 as spinning 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 the Guangdong Electric Power Holding Company (formerly named the Guangdong General Power Company) of China and electricity is exported to Guangdong Province. Such sales are made from existing reserve generating capacity and 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.

CLP has a contract with the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company Limited for the supply of electricity, for a 10-year period starting from late 1986, to the industrial zone of Shekou and the adjacent Chi Wan area, both in Guangdong. The arrangements, which afford Shekou 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.

In 1985, the Hong Kong Nuclear Investment Company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of CLP) and the Guangdong Nuclear Investment Company (wholly owned by the Chinese Ministry of Nuclear Industry) established the Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company, to construct and operate a nuclear power station at Daya Bay in Guangdong. This comprises two 985MW pressurised water reactors which went into commercial operation in February and May 1994, respectively. CLP under- took to buy about 70 per cent of the station's power to meet part of the longer-term demand for electricity in its supply area.

CLP through its affiliated company, the Hong Kong Pumped Storage Development Company Limited, has bought the right to use 50 per cent of the capacity of the Guangzhou Pumped Storage Power Station, at Conghua. The total installed capacity of the current phase is 1 200MW. Off-peak electricity from the Castle Peak Stations and Guangdong Nuclear Power Station is used to pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper one. The water is allowed to flow downhill during the day to generate electricity to meet Hong Kong's peak demand.

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