Hong Kong, 25 June 2015 － Business Environment Council Limited 商界環保協會有限公司 (“BEC”) made a submission to the Environment Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government on 25 June 2015 in response to the “Public Consultation on the Future Development of the Electricity Market”. BEC believes that the Scheme of Control Agreement (“SCA”) framework has worked very effectively to allow Hong Kong to meet its four energy policy objectives, and is in favour of continuing to use the SCA as a regulatory framework. However, we consider that the SCA can be refined, in particular with respect to the environmental performance objective.
In relation to choice in electricity supply, BEC considers that the objectives of promoting choice should be clearly defined and the value of providing choice to consumers should be carefully weighed against the cost of providing choice. The provision of choice should not be at the expense of Hong Kong’s ability to meet its four energy policy objectives.
BEC supports the development of renewable energy as part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Specifically, BEC supports facilitating grid access to allow clean distributed generation in Hong Kong on a more widespread basis on fair and reasonable terms. In addition, considering the expertise of the existing local power companies in the development and operations of energy facilities and the economies of scale, BEC encourages establishing strong incentive structures for the two local power companies to speed the development of large commercial scale renewables, but recognises that this may lead to an increase in costs which will need to be considered.
BEC also supports carefully studying the feasibility of importing clean, low carbon energy from Mainland China as soon as this can be reliably delivered. Renewable energy imported from China should meet the concept of “additionality” in order to avoid simply externalising Hong Kong’s emissions. The concept of “additionality” refers to the idea that renewable energy imported by Hong Kong would be “additional” in that it would not come from renewable sources that China would have otherwise developed in the normal case.
In addition, BEC believes that programmes for enhancing energy efficiency is a critical part of transforming the electricity market to a clean, low carbon market. BEC encourages Government to accelerate efforts in this area including supporting efforts by power companies to develop a smarter grid to facilitate energy efficiency programmes.
All in all, BEC believes that decisive action by Government and a strong partnership amongst Government, the power companies and the general public are needed for any meaningful reforms necessary to transition Hong Kong to a low carbon economy.
Full version of BEC’s submission to the Environment Bureau dated 25 June 2015 can be accessed at BEC’s website at http://bec.org.hk/files/images/Resource_Centre/Submission/BEC_Submission_SCA.pdf.
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