CLP Power pledges to keep energy tariffs at reasonable level
Energy supplier pledges to try to keep tariffs reasonable, but rise may be higher as domestic source of natural gas as fuel is dwindling
Energy supplier CLP Power has pledged to seek a means to hold tariff increases at a "reasonable level", but warned uncertainties might limit its possibilities.
The firm said yesterday it would keep using cheaper natural gas from the depleting Yacheng reserve in Hainan as long as possible to mitigate a likely sharp rise in the price of replacement gas piped from Central Asia via mainland China.
The company is expected to hand a new tariff-adjustment proposal to the government in mid-October, seeking an increase next year.
"We will work very hard to adjust the increase to a reasonable level," CLP business development director Quince Chong Wai-yan said.
Her remarks follow a warning by chairman Michael Kadoorie earlier this year of a 40 per cent price rise by the end of 2015 as the cost of the new gas, under a contract sealed 20 years ago, would be three times that of the existing supply.
CLP was plunged into a public-relations crisis last year after it sought a price increase of more than 9 per cent. It relented twice in a month-long stand-off with the Environment Bureau, eventually settling for 4.9 per cent.
Chong, a former Cathay Pacific executive, yesterday said it was uncertain how long the Hainan field would last. The utility is expected to use both old and new gas initially when the new pipeline is completed late this year.