Climate change: CLP Power, Hong Kong businesses find common goal in energy-saving incentives

Name: Grim warning for Hong Kong as UN releases major report on climate crisis
Uploaded: 2021-12-27T23:30:26.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: Grim warning for Hong Kong as UN releases major report on climate crisis

CLP Power has set aside HK$32 million to help businesses reduce power consumption, HK$100 million to subsidise similar efforts in commercial buildings

Hang Heung bakery and V Walk shopping centre are two examples where upgrading efforts have helped reduce power consumption

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CLP Power’s Black Point Power Station in Lung Kwu Tan, New Territories. The natural gas-fired plant is Hong Kong’s first environmentally friendly station. Photo: Martin Chan

Eric Ng

Published: 7:30am, 28 Dec 2021Updated: 11:24am, 28 Dec 2021

CLP Power, one of two Hong Kong electricity suppliers, has set aside HK$32 million (US$4.1 million) in 2022 to help local businesses become more efficient in their energy consumption through facility upgrade and training.

The initiative is part of its obligations to help Hong Kong combat climate change and improve air quality under a 2018 agreement when it won a 15-year extension to its concession. The firm, part of CLP Holdings, is the sole supplier in Kowloon, New Territories and most outlying islands.

CLP Power has provided free energy audits to more than 2,000 commercial and industrial customers in the past three years, offering tips on energy-saving methods such as optimising equipment settings, and subsidies for energy-saving upgrades.

“Energy saving does not necessarily require huge investment, often it is the awareness and behavioural changes that count,” CLP Power’s Low, says in interview. Photo: Felix Wong

Those efforts have helped century-old bakery Hang Heung Cake Shop modernise its equipment and automate some of its processes, resulting in a 20 per cent reduction in power consumption. V Walk, a mall in Kowloon developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHK), cut 5 per cent of its consumption by optimising its air conditioning settings, CLP said.

“Our role is to help our customers and the government achieve their sustainability ambition, to make Hong Kong a greener place to live in,” said Lena Low, senior director for customer and business development at CLP Power. Its strategies include “introducing as many solutions as possible and helping them plan a longer term road map,” she added.

A spokesman of Hang Heung said the bakery has invested in new production lines and energy usage control systems. The firm expects the power bill savings would allow it to recoup its outlay in about five years.

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Grim warning for Hong Kong as UN releases major report on climate crisis

Hong Kong last year announced its carbon neutrality target by 2050, with any residual emissions offset by buying credits to fund decarbonisation projects. Activities in the city’s 41,000-odd buildings account for over 90 per cent of electricity consumption and 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emission, according to the government.