2023-04-20 20:31:59
There was a major power outage in many areas of Hong Kong Island in the early morning of Wednesday (19th). HK Electric said afterwards that the power supply was affected due to equipment failure during line maintenance and repair. Nearly 45 hours after the blackout, Hong Kong Electric explained the preliminary investigation results at 10:00 last night, pointing out that in the early morning of the same day, engineering personnel accidentally connected the system to a backup cable that was not on the record during the maintenance of the system at the Cyberport power switch station. , causing system short circuit and voltage sag, affecting power supply. HK Electric also found that another backup cable at the same switching station had the same situation, and will investigate the cause. HK Electric would like to sincerely apologize to the affected users.
Ye Chongtai, General Manager of HK Electric’s Transmission and Distribution Division, said that the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning at the Cyberport Power Switching Station, which belongs to the 275,000-kilovolt (275 kV) backbone transmission system. , A backup cable was accidentally energized during debugging, which caused a short circuit and a voltage drop, and triggered the automatic protection system. He pointed out that the backup cable does not have an independent protection device, so it needs to be isolated for a long time, triggering a chain reaction and affecting the power supply in some areas of Hong Kong Island. According to preliminary investigations, the cable was converted into a backup cable during the power grid improvement project in the early years. It has been connected to the system for more than ten years and remains in a state of no power, but the site is not marked as a backup cable.
Ye Chongtai continued to explain that because the computer data held by the engineering personnel did not have the cable, the on-site debugging procedure did not cover the handling method of the cable. As a result, after maintenance, the cable was accidentally energized during re-testing, causing a short circuit.
He also revealed that the maintenance personnel involved had joined HK Electric for more than ten years; and the personnel also found a similar situation in another backup cable in the same sub-district switching station. They have stopped the maintenance work immediately and will confirm the accuracy of the circuit diagram again and again. , add a note to the backup cable information to ensure that the engineering staff will pay special attention to it when they work in the future. In response to this incident, HK Electric also deployed additional manpower to ensure stable and reliable power supply, comprehensively reviewed the accuracy of the circuit diagram of the power supply system, and checked maintenance work, construction measures and procedures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Zheng Zuying, director of operation of Hong Kong Electric, added that Cyberport is its main power switching station, and it does not only affect Cyberport. If there is an accident at the main switching station, the entire system will also be affected. The units of the Lamma Island Power Plant were also affected by the current voltage fluctuation. It was initially found that there was no serious damage or obvious damage. Detailed inspection and analysis will continue in the future.
He expressed his sincere apology to the affected customers for the incident, describing it as an isolated incident, very rare, and also involving backup cables. HK Electric will conduct an in-depth study to find out whether there is any need for improvement in the system, and take measures to prevent the incident from happening again, and will submit a detailed report within four weeks as required by the government, and propose improvement and prevention methods.
Respond to whether compensation will be made according to the contract and mechanism
When asked whether he would compensate affected customers, he said that the company operates in accordance with the government control plan agreement, and the power outage reward and punishment mechanism is specified in the contract, which also depends on the annual performance, not a single event.
HK Electric’s power supply system had equipment failures during line maintenance and repairs in the early hours of the morning. However, according to the “Scheme of Control Agreement” between the Hong Kong government and the two power companies, HK Electric can restore power within 65 minutes, or it may instead receive an additional 0.015% permitted profit.
Legislative Council member Liang Xi of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong pointed out that it is HK Electric’s responsibility to stabilize power supply, and it also enjoys an 8% profit guarantee, so it is unreasonable to receive a reward after a power outage for nearly an hour. He also believes that it is a low-level mistake for engineers to use old data to cause power outages, which is completely unacceptable. He has written to the Environmental Affairs Committee of the Legislative Council, requesting that discussions be arranged as soon as possible.
Originally published on AM730 https://www.am730.com.hk/Local/Preliminary Investigation of Hong Kong Island Power Outage-HK Electric-Short circuit caused by wrong backup cable/372696?utm_source=yahoorss&utm_medium=referral
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