Carbon cuts 'rely on nuclear plan'
The government's goal of reducing the city's carbon intensity by up to 60 per cent by 2020 will be stymied, and consumers may face higher electricity bills, if nuclear-power generation is not developed further, CLP Holdings warned yesterday.
While stressing there was no immediate plan for tariff increases, the power supplier's chairman, Michael Kadoorie, said nuclear energy was still the only technology capable of large-scale generation of clean electricity without a major increase in utility costs.
The group put the brake on its plan to purchase a 17 per cent stake in a nuclear plant in Yangjiang, Guangdong, in March after the State Council froze approval of all the mainland's new nuclear projects following Japan's nuclear crisis.
The situation has not only clouded CLP's plan to enhance nuclear energy as a component of its power generation, but also overshadowed a government proposal to slash carbon intensity by 50 per cent to 60 per cent by 2020, through raising nuclear energy's share among fuels from the current 23 per cent to 50 per cent.
At CLP's annual general meeting yesterday, group chief executive Andrew Brandler said the target might need to be revised in case further growth in the use of nuclear power was banned.
'The government will have to look at its target again for sure, in particular the extent of the 60 per cent reduction in carbon intensity, because a majority of the reduction comes from a change of generating fuel mix, and without nuclear it will be difficult to achieve the target,' he said.
The larger of the city's two power suppliers now has an approximately equal share in its fuel mixture, made up of nuclear, natural gas and coal. While their costs are comparable, power generated by natural gas and coal is subject to much greater price fluctuations.
Separately, Brandler said the company had no new acquisition plans on the radar, although renewable energy projects were going ahead. A number of wind-power projects in India were scheduled to be commissioned by the end of this year, while the group's investment in Thailand's biggest solar farm is also expected to begin operation later this year.
As for the major acquisition of EnergyAustralia - the biggest electricity retailer in New South Wales and a supplier to the Sydney market - completed last month, Brandler said the group was now busily consolidating the acquired assets into its Australian flagship TRUenergy.
