'Rodent, ageing cables may have caused power glitch'
A power outage that lasted for more than an hour and affected some 300 households in Tsing Yi on Sunday might have been caused by a rodent chewing a cable, according to an electrical and building services engineer. Ho Wing-ip told a radio programme on Monday that another explanation could simply be ageing cables. "Subjected to prolonged operation under a high current, the cable's ageing process may have been accelerated due to the elevated temperatures, potentially leading to current leakage," he said. "It is difficult to dismiss the possibility that the cable damage was caused by either a gnawing rodent or natural ageing, unless someone deliberately damaged the cable." Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said the blackout, along with a voltage dip on New Year's Day that left some people trapped in lifts, are not classed as serious enough to warrant fines for electricity company CLP. "The government's penalty mechanism only focuses on major incidents and tends to overlook smaller-scale ones," he said on a radio programme.  "If an incident occurs at a lower level, CLP Power will not face any fines or assume responsibility since the duration of the power outage will not meet the triggering threshold." The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department is investigating Sunday's blackout, as well as the voltage dip on January 1.