Hong Kong authorities receive 52 reports of people stuck in lifts after voltage dip

A voltage dip across multiple districts of Hong Kong on Saturday resulted in 52 reports of people trapped in lifts, according to authorities, with a hill fire affecting overhead electricity pylons suspected to be the cause. The Fire Services Department said multiple people trapped in lifts in the New Territories and Kowloon contacted authorities between 12.28pm and 1.13pm. CLP Power provides electricity to Kowloon, the New Territories and most of the outlying islands. The city’s other main supplier, HK Electric, handles Hong Kong Island, Ap Lei Chau and Lamma Island. CLP Power has been hit by several electricity supply issues in recent months. “A voltage dip occurred in various districts at 12.28pm, resulting in cases of people being shut in lifts,” the department said. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department said CLP notified it about the dip at around 12.42pm. Department staff immediately followed up with the power provider and deployed staff to the scene to conduct assessments, it added. “The [department] requested that CLP identify the cause of the incident and submit a detailed report within four weeks,” a spokesman said. Authorities urged trapped residents to remain calm as firefighters were responding to the reports. The fire department said at 2.40pm that no more cases had been received. CLP said its 400kV overhead power supply system connecting Yuen Long and Lai Chi Kok experienced a brief voltage dip around 12.28pm, with no interruption to the electricity supply. “As the voltage dip occurred in a high-voltage system, customers in different districts might have been affected,” it said. The company said a preliminary investigation suggested a hill fire in Yuen Long’s Shap Pat Heung had affected overhead electricity pylons. An engineering team was following up on the case and monitoring the status of the power supply, the company added. 2 Hong Kong power outages in space of week caused by degraded parts, CLP says Firefighters were still trying to put out a hill fire on Saturday night that started about 12.30pm in the area, according to the department. Nine fire trucks were deployed to the scene, with the Government Flying Service also involved. Authorities could not confirm if it was the same fire that affected the CLP pylons. Saturday’s voltage dip was the latest case after authorities implemented a new penalty scheme in light of a 2022 power cable fire that affected 160,000 households in the northwestern New Territories. Despite the fire, CLP Power received HK$19.4 million in 2022 for restoring power promptly, while HK Electric was granted HK$18.4 million the same year. The new scheme, introduced last November, takes into account the reliability of the power supply and the speed at which it is restored after an outage. In early January, CLP was hit two outages in Tsing Yi within the span of a week. The Environment and Ecology Bureau later said it was “extremely concerned and shocked” by the incidents. BYD electric car catches fire at Hong Kong charging station In a separate statement, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan also expressed his “great disappointment” to the energy firm’s managing director, Joseph Law Ka-chun, over the two outages. CLP Power later said the outages were caused by deterioration in equipment parts and stressed the incidents were not linked. The January 1 power cut left more than a dozen residents trapped in lifts and set off fire alarms in Kwai Chung, Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi, Ma On Shan and Sha Tin. The second incident affected 388 households for almost 1½ hours from 9.38am. CLP Power must explain the situation about the two cases at a Legislative Council panel meeting in May. Independent electrical engineer Ho Wing-yip said he believed that Saturday’s case involved ashes from the fire rising into the air and affecting the insulation of the overhead power lines, resulting in a short circuit that caused fluctuations in the voltage and current in a short period of time. “Overhead power lines are more susceptible to short circuits caused by hill fires, overgrown trees and even entanglement by the cords of kites. I call on the company involved in the incident to step up inspection and maintenance, to minimise the likelihood of similar incidents occurring,” he said. Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun said it was unreasonable to punish CLP Power for the latest case because technically it was not a power outage. He urged CLP Power to subsidise 70 per cent of expenses and homeowners to pay the remainder to install a safety mechanism that would allow lift doors to open closest to a floor when electricity dipped or there was a black out. Additional reporting by Denise Tsang and Ezra Cheung