Page 13 - Sphere No.30 (Dec 2011)

2008
11
Sphere 30
The company commissions a gas-fired power station in
Ratchapuri, Thailand where it has a 25 per cent stake and
acquires 50 per cent of an
electricity network in
Wellington, New Zealand.
generators sprang back to life, providing a constant
backdrop to the following decades of rapid change and
unprecedented growth.
The colony’s population surged as refugees flooded in to
escape upheavals in the Chinese Mainland. Many perceived
Hong Kong Island as the safest haven, boosting the tiny island’s
population to more than one million by 1950 and creating a surge
in demand for electricity, especially with the post-war rise of
local industries.
To spread the load, power to factories on Hong Kong Island
was switched off between 6 pm and 10 pm each night. In
homes, lighting during evening peak hours was not as bright
as later in the evening. But because of the diligence of the
company’s engineers, at least no one worried about it going off.
The presence of sophisticated, wealthy
Shanghainese among the new arrivals,
with their higher expectations of modern
comforts, boosted demand for electricity,
as did changes in fashion to lightweight
business suits in summer; the construction
of taller buildings with elevators and, later,
the increasing popularity of television,
spearheaded by the legendary TVB show
Enjoy Yourself Tonight.
Hongkong Electric staff rose to meet the challenge head-on,
often going to extraordinary lengths to keep the power supply
to Hong Kong’s factories and households running smoothly.
Power Assets Group Managing Director Tso Kai Sum, who
has spent more than 30 years of his career with the company,
recounts such a challenge in 1966. He was tasked with building
and commissioning a plant on the island of Ap Lei Chau, off the
southwest shore of Hong Kong Island, in little over two years –
then a world record.
After this, the company’s network shortfall meant
transmission was needed by overhead and marine cables all the
way to North Point, some nine kilometres away. Mr Tso’s team
achieved this in only nine months – but not without Mr Tso
spending nights sleeping on-site to meet the tight deadlines.
Such complex technical challenges were a far cry from those
faced by company engineers of an earlier era, when a shoal
of small fish swimming into the cooling water inlet of the
North Point power plant was enough to cause a major blackout.
By the 1970s, legions of old-style “amahs” had departed
domestic service for more lucrative jobs in Hong Kong’s
factories, hastening the adoption of a wide range of electrically-
powered household appliances. Most important was the now-
ubiquitous electric rice cooker – which became a mainstay of
almost every Hong Kong home.
From 1950-70, the company’s power output increased
tenfold, while Hong Kong Island’s population less than doubled,
quantifying the true extent of the electrification of daily life.
Hongkong Electric played a crucial role in
powering this lifestyle revolution.
In the mid-1980s, nearing its
centennial, Hongkong Electric underwent
ownership changes. Facing financial
difficulties in a distressed property market,
Hongkong Land sought to offload non-
core assets and found Hutchison a willing
buyer for its share of Hongkong Electric.
This was a pivotal development for the formerly-traditional,
colonial-style company. “Hutchison’s involvement helped
Hongkong Electric move into property development and realise
returns from developing our old Ap Lei Chau site into the
popular residential complex South Horizons,” according to
Mr Tso. “Hutchison also provided us with the stability of what
has since grown into a life partnership.”
With such a long history behind it, the company’s natural
inclination is to keep looking to the future. As Mr Tso put it:
“We are always thinking ‘what can we do next?’ And that is
very important for our company. You can never sit still.”
The recent completion of a solar power system, coupled
with the proposed development of a wind farm near Lamma
Island, is evidence of this forward-thinking approach, along
2008
“We are always
thinking ‘what
can we do next?’”