CLP powers ahead with ‘smart’ and ‘clean’ energy opportunities in Greater Bay Area just as it did 40 years ago
- CLP is deploying clean energy, smart city and digital energy infrastructure monitoring technologies in the Greater Bay Area to improve efficiency and enhance customer experience
- CLP has invested US$7.7 billion into 50 power projects in the mainland since 1979
Back then, the province did not have access to US dollars to pay CLP, which in turn did not want to accept yuan as it was not used outside mainland China then.
“The solution was to use barter trade,” recalled Chan Siu-hung, CLP’s managing director of China, who joined the firm in 1981. “We dispatched electricity to Guangdong from our plant in Fanling, while China gave us coal to fuel the plant.”
Since that barter trade, CLP has greatly expanded its footprint in China, ploughing some HK$60 billion (US$7.74 billion) into 50 electricity projects – spanning coal, hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power – in 15 provinces. Their combined generation capacity of 8,990 megawatts serves millions of households, factories and shops in the world’s second largest economy.
Fast-forward four decades, CLP is again playing a crucial role in enhancing energy security in mainland cities, while also helping to lower its carbon footprint and reducing infrastructure maintenance costs through deployment of digital technology.