2 Hong Kong power outages in space of week caused by degraded parts, CLP says

The corporate apologised to affected prospects.

The primary incident, involving a voltage dip at Nga Ying Chau Road substation on New Yr’s Day, was discovered to have been attributable to degradation of insulation materials inside a defective sealing finish of a 132kV cable.

The fault resulted in a brief circuit, triggering an automated safety system that precipitated an influence outage.

The Hearth Companies Division mentioned it had acquired a minimum of 20 reviews of individuals trapped in lifts between 3.13pm and three.55pm in Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi, Ma On Shan and Sha Tin.

The second incident, a partial energy provide interruption at On Mei Home in Cheung On Property on January 7, was the results of a defective cable joint in an 11kV underground cable. The fault arose from the joint’s deteriorated waterproofing capabilities, permitting moisture to seep into its inside half, the agency mentioned.

The interruption affected 388 prospects for nearly 1½ hours from 9.38am. CLP Energy mentioned it had changed the defective joint the identical day.

Hong Kong minister expresses disappointment to CLP Energy chief over repeat outage

The spokesman mentioned CLP had boosted its checks on tools in Tsing Yi and inspected the identical sort of cable sealing ends and cable joints in different districts.

“To additional enhance the processes, CLP Energy will work with an unbiased business marketing consultant to evaluation the upkeep preparations of the transmission and distribution system,” the spokesman mentioned.

CLP added it will additionally strengthen communications with property administration firms and neighborhood leaders to enhance the response in future incidents.

Following submission of the reviews, the Atmosphere and Ecology Bureau could be attributable to look into how the federal government might strengthen supervision to enhance utility firms’ efficiency.

Lawmaker Chan Siu-hung, a retired electrical engineer and a senior adviser to CLP Energy’s dad or mum firm, CLP Holdings, informed the Publish that to his data, the defective parts within the two incidents wouldn’t be thought of outdated.

“Once we speak about outdated components we’re speaking about ones in use for 50 to 60 years. My estimation is that they’ve been used for round 20 to 30 years,” Chan mentioned.

Voltage dip in Hong Kong traps 20 individuals in lifts, units off fireplace alarms

He mentioned he suspected that, excluding the opportunity of exterior harm, the parts may need been barely faulty from the manufacturing stage, with extended use exacerbating the faults.

“Using phrases reminiscent of ‘deteriorate’ and ‘degrade’ normally means there have been defects within the element when delivered from the producer, however they weren’t picked up through the set up course of and handed all commissioning assessments,” Chan mentioned.

“However because the tools was used for an extended interval, the defect would develop to the purpose of a breakdown on the day [of the incident].”

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He urged CLP Energy to conduct checks on all components of the identical mannequin and buying date to weed out potential defects, consider its common upkeep programme and undertake newer applied sciences to determine doable faults.

Impartial electrical engineer Ho Wing-yip questioned why the parts on the centre of the 2 incidents had malfunctioned and whether or not CLP Energy had carried out thorough checks throughout routine repairs and upkeep.

He urged CLP Energy to additional deal with these questions.