Plan to import power to Hong Kong from mainland China shelved amid reliability concerns

An option to import more electricity to Hong Kong from mainland China has been shelved for the moment, with a majority of people who expressed their view citing energy reliability as their chief concern.

The Environment Bureau announced on Tuesday that half of the city's electricity needs would instead come from local generation using natural gas by the year 2020 - about 10 per cent less than was originally proposed. About a quarter of the city's electricity will continue to come from nuclear power.

Having considered the 86,000 submissions in the consultation last year on the fuel mix, Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing said the government would not pursue the grid purchase option "in the short term".

"We note the public attaches much importance to ensuring a high level of reliability of electricity supply and have reservations on importing electricity from the mainland at this stage," he said. "The majority of respondents preferred local generation..

Two options were floated by the government last year on how the city should be powered. The first involved purchasing 30 per cent of its electricity from the mainland grid, while the second favoured increasing the share of natural gas for local power generation to 60 per cent.

The announcement came as the bureau launched a three-month consultation to gauge public views on the future development and regulatory framework of the electricity market.

The principal assistant secretary for the environment, Donald Ng Man-kit, said since the city would shift to more natural gas for electricity in the future, generation costs would inevitably rise, but it was too early to predict how it would affect power tariffs.