HK Electric submits three sites for power plant
TO meet the need for new power generating capacity by 2003, Hongkong Electric has asked the Government to choose from three preferred sites for a new power plant.
The utility, which supplies electricity to Hong Kong Island, Lamma Island and Ap Lei Chau, said it had studied 17 possible sites for the plant.
It hoped the Government would grant approval for a new plant on either Po Toi Island or on an artificial island west of Lamma Island, or an extension to the existing plant on Lamma Island's Ash Lagoon.
In a presentation to the Legislative Council's panel on economic services on Monday, Hongkong Electric said it expected its reserve capacity to fall to 21 per cent by 2003 - below the agreed minimum of 25 per cent - meaning it would need to commission a new 600 megawatt unit.
The company hoped that it could receive preliminary approval for one of the sites by the middle of this year, with construction to begin in the second half of 1998.
Once it received Government approval, the utility would conduct an environmental impact assessment and then submit a land application.
The company said it would need to spend about $16.1 billion to build 1,200 MW of new power generating capacity on Po Toi or Lamma between 1999 and 2006, but $18.5 billion to do the same thing on the artificial island.
It expected tariffs between 1999 and 2006 to rise an average 2.5 per cent if the power plant were built on Po Toi or Lamma, but 2.9 per cent if it were built on the artificial island.
The company said that installed generating capacity on Po Toi or the artificial island could reach 2,175 MW by 2013, with the whole artificial island plant expected to cost $3.5 billion more than the Po Toi plant.
Then overall tariffs would only rise an average of 1.9 per cent between 1999 and 2013 if the plant were on Po Toi and 2.1 per cent if it were on the artificial island.
The existing Lamma Island plant could only be expanded by another 1,200 MW.
In the shorter term, slower than expected growth in demand for electricity has led Hongkong Electric to defer commissioning of a Lamma Island gas turbine from 2000 to 2001.
Last week the company reported in its final results that unit sales of electricity had grown only 1.5 per cent last year and that peak demand for electricity fell by 0.7 per cent. The company forecast that reserve capacity would be 26 per cent in 2000 and 21 per cent in 2001.
Cooler and wetter than expected weather last year, with slower economic growth, meant that maximum demand for electricity was 4.7 per cent - or 99 MW - below what the company had forecast.
