Old flats get priority in CLP's green-energy fund

Old residential buildings without clubhouses and with owners' groups will get priority for funding from a green-energy project set up by the city's largest power supplier.

CLP Power made the announcement yesterday as it launched its Eco Building Fund that will allocate up to HK$17 million a year until 2018 to replace old, power-hungry electrical fittings with energy-saving modern alternatives.

Successful applicants will get grants of up to HK$500,000 per building or up to HK$1 million for an entire estate. Equipment to be replaced includes lighting, lifts and air conditioners.

CLP's chief corporate development officer Quince Chong Wai-yan said the money would come from an estimated HK$70 million it was entitled to for meeting the government's energy-efficiency and audit targets.

She said the fund was aimed at old buildings, but would not say how many might benefit as it depended on the scale and type of each project. "We are very confident that we will not leave even a cent in the fund," she said.

CLP Power supplies electricity to more than two million customers in Kowloon, the New Territories and outlying islands except Lamma, which is supplied by HK Electric.