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Hong Kong energy firm should give back reward for fixing power outage caused by human error, minister urges
- ‘I have suggested to HK Electric that they have to give back their reward to residents in case they have got one,’ city’s environmental minister says
- Electricity supplier earlier admitted Wednesday’s early morning outage was due to workers plugging in wrong cable at switching station
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Hong Kong’s environment minister has urged the electricity firm involved in an early morning outage on Wednesday to return any reward earned for swiftly restoring power after it was suggested that human error had caused the blackout.
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Following calls for a review Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Friday also conceded that the incident had exposed that the reward mechanism for promptly restoring power was “inappropriate”.
HK Electric on Thursday night admitted the 48-minute outage on Hong Kong Island was due to a voltage dip caused by maintenance workers connecting the wrong cable, a backup one, at its Cyberport switching station in Pok Fu Lam.
According to the firm, the cable had not been used for more than 10 years and was not marked on the switching station’s circuit diagram.
The repercussions of Wednesday’s outage continued throughout that morning, with some traffic lights across several districts on Hong Kong Island malfunctioning, prompting authorities to warn commuters to drive safely.
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