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A telephone survey was conducted from 23 to 26 June 2014 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to gauge public views about the future fuel mix for electricity generation.  813 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 46.1%.  The sampling error is + or –3.44% at a confidence level of 95%. 

Major findings are summarized as follows: 

In the survey, the respondents were asked if they supported the “grid purchase” (under which importing electricity through purchase from the Mainland power grid is proposed) or the “local generation” (under which use of more natural gas for local generation is proposed) options.  While 16.0% of the respondents showed support to the “grid purchase” option, two-thirds (67.5%) preferred the “local generation” one.  2.3% said they supported both options and 2.1% did not support either one.  It must be noted that 12.1% answered “do not know”. 

Their views over a series of statements weighting the two options were also asked.  Concerning the objective of supply reliability, over half of the 813 respondents (54.0%) agreed with the statement that “As the level of reliability of electricity supply from the Mainland power grid is lower than that of the Hong Kong one, the ‘grid purchase’ option would reduce the reliability of electricity supply in Hong Kong”.  A quarter (24.2%) disagreed with it and 14.0% said “in-between”.  Second, 28.7% agreed with the statement that “As strong support is provided by the Mainland’s power grid with multiple sources of supply plus local back-up generation could be set up to cater for emergencies, electricity supply of the ‘grid purchase’ option is highly reliable”.  Over two-fifths (43.1%) disagreed and 20.0% answered “in-between”.

Regarding the issue of affordability, one-third (35.1%) of the respondents agreed with the statement that “As existing supply of electricity in Hong Kong is from the two local suppliers, price could be reduced when the ‘grid purchase’ option is adopted for more competition”, 36.4% expressed the opposite view and 23.0% said “in-between”.  About their views over the statement “As fuel price under the ‘grid purchase’ option is set by the Mainland, Hong Kong would have little, if any, bargaining power over electricity cost”, more than half of the respondents (55.1%) agreed with it.  One-fifth (19.3%) disagreed and 21.2% answered “in-between”.  

While three-fifths (59.9%) of the respondents agreed with the statement that “As Hong Kong is heavily dependent on the Mainland in many aspects, the ‘grid purchase’ option would further increase our reliance on the Mainland”, only one-fifth (20.3%) showed disagreement.  29.3% of the respondents agreed with the view that “With the ‘local generation’ option, it would be difficult to find land for new generation facilities in order to meet the fuel demand in the future” and 43.9% disagreed. 

Finally, when the respondents were asked which factor, other than safety, they would consider the most important when evaluating the two options of the future fuel mix for electricity generation, reliability was at the top, accounting almost one-third of the responses (32.2%).  The figures for affordability, environmental performance, and diversification were at a similar level of 20.4%, 20.3% and 19.6% respectively.