Govt will talk with HK Electric over outage reward
The government on Monday said it will talk with Hongkong Electric over a long-standing mechanism which rewards power firms for restoring electricity within a certain period of time after an outage.  The development comes after a blackout in April affected more than 40,000 customers on Hong Kong Island. Because the problem was fixed within 65 minutes, Hongkong Electric is allowed to increase its return slightly under its operating agreement with the government. During a Legco panel meeting, numerous lawmakers pressed the power company to heed the government’s advice and compensate customers with any reward it's expected to receive.  But the firm's operations director, Francis Cheng, said it's too early to comment on the matter as they do not even know if they will be rewarded until the year is over. Cheng said affected customers can contact Hongkong Electric for claims, and their cases will be handled by insurance companies. The incident sparked debate about the reward mechanism for the city's two power firms. Environment minister Tse Chin-wan said the government will negotiate with Hongkong Electric over the matter, adding that authorities have bargaining power in such talks. "In terms of future incentive rewards and reports, these are to be approved by the government. There can be hurdles before incentive rewards can be awarded," he said. "Also, the development plans of the company have to be approved by the government. The government's approval will affect these business plans, the scale of the plans, and also its profitability." Meanwhile, the director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, Eric Pang, said officials are investigating if Hongkong Electric violated the Electricity Ordinance over the April outage.  He said the probe will be complete within six months of the incident.