It's time again for our single, once-yearly guided tour of the Lamma Power Station, organised by HK Electric and myself. I'll be handling the signups, email me at info@Lamma.com.hk.

About half of the group is booked out already by people who registered early seeing the event on the home page or in the Lamma Events Calendar, announced many weeks ago.

People who've never been inside or had to be turned down last year due to oversubscription will get preferential treatment this year:

Here's the description of the tour from our tour guide Edmund Pang, the same very friendly and knowledgeable guide we had last year:

"The maximum group size is 35 and visitors should be 15 years old or above. Facilities to be visited will include Visitor Centre, solar power system, control centre, turbine hall of gas-fired generating unit & coal yard area and visit will end at noon on 15 Aug."

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Just kinldy comfirm, I've already onto the list, right?
(Sandy Wong x 3ppls)

Yes, Sandy, you're on the list, 3 people in total.

After some negotiation, Edmund agreed to some add-ons for the tour!

"Please note we’ll visit the plant facilities in Lamma Power Station and the areas involved are occupied with machines in operation. Hence, visitors have to be 15 years old or above in view of safety.

For the duration of visit, I will extend it to about 2 hours (i.e. 10:30am-12:30pm) and snack/drink will be provided during the briefing session on operation of plant facilities in Visitor Centre."

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For an idea of what to expect, see stories, reviews & photo galleries of former tours:

http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/Blog/Blog-2011-02.html#Feb18
http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/PG-2/Inside-Lamma-Power-Station.htm
http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/PG-2/Inside-Lamma-Power-Station-LG.htm

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Thanks^^

The tour has still quite a few seats available as a large group of Lammaites just had to pull out. Contact me at info@lamma.com.hk.

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Do they offer any tour on weekends?

This English-language tour, one busload, is only available once a year for Lammaites. Even this has only been offered after a few years of me reminding them occasionally.

The first such tour happened only last year and this is only the 2nde-ever English-language tour for Lammaites. (Our Rural Committee organises a yearly Chin.-language tour, I believe.) Tours are only offered on a date they determine and announce several months in advance, but never on weekends, sorry.

This might be your only chance ever to see the inside, except you have some good connections outside Lamma, like being a VIP, politician, Govt. official, a student, an NGO member or a member of the National Geographic Society who got what was called the first-ever public English tour into the Power Station less than 2 years ago.

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Alan's comments are noted.

His and other visitors' feedback from last year were taken into consideration, so I asked the tour guide to enhance and expand the tour this year. So we'll also see the control room and the solar power station on the rooftop, plus make the tour longer to have the chance to get the many questions answered, plus even get some snack and drinks (their compromise from me requesting a free lunch )

New Itinerary:
Maximum group size is 35 and visitors should be 15 years old or above.
Photography permitted.
Assemble at Power Station East gate, just above Power Station Beach.
Visit will last from 10:30am - 12:30pm, Wed, Aug 15.

Facilities to be visited will include:

Visitor Centre (briefing session on operation of plant facilities, snacks/drinks will be provided),
Control Centre,
HK's largest commercial Solar Power System on the rooftop,
Turbine hall of gas-fired generating unit,
Coal yard area.

You'll need to RSVP with me, as they insist on a list of registered visitor names by Monday, for security reasons. After all, this is the only Power Station generating all power for all of HK Island and Lamma Island; they'll make sure that nothing and nobody can jeopardise their 99.99+% uptime.

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Dear Lamma -Gung,
My neighbour called Lai Har Chu.
She also want to join this Lamma Power Station Guided Tour .
May i enroll for her?
Thanks!

Sandy722, OK, enrolled.
We've still got a few seats left....
Email info@Lamma.com.hk

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Hi Lamma-Gung,

Can I also join the tour? Hope its not too late...

I'll send my details by email.

Thanks,

Lamma Gung, May i know the pick-up/drop-off stops at where? And the time .

Sandy

Sandy, I've sent the full details to all registered and confirmed visitors this early morning, including yourself:

Itinerary: (for registered visitors only)

Assemble at Power Station gate, near Power Station Beach, at the very beginning of Cable Road along Power Station Beach, around 10:15am tomorrow, Wed, Aug 15.

We’ve got a tight schedule and many questions to get answers for, so please don’t be late. We can’t wait for latecomers and you can’t join the tour bus after it’s left the gate.

Visit will last from 10:30am - 12:30pm, photography permitted.
Drop-off point: same place, Power Station gate close to Power Station Beach.

Facilities to be visited (transportation by tour bus):

Visitors Centre (briefing session on operation of plant facilities, snacks/drinks will be provided),
Control Centre,
HK's largest commercial Solar Power System on the rooftop,
Turbine hall of gas-fired generating unit,
Coal yard area.

Prepare lots of questions, but be mindful that we’ve got a lot to see in just 2 hours, so let’s not get stuck in the Visitors Centre.

I hope to get a few comments, maybe even a few pictures, from you afterwards, about the Power Station and the tour, to be published in the Lamma-zine (anonymously if you prefer).

See you tomorrow! I’ll be wearing a black Lamma Dragons baseball cap.
Call me at 6498 6960 for any problems or questions.

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Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Click above for my photo gallery, plus a Lamma-zine story with more photos:
http://www.compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/includes_news.html#Aug15

Comments from tour participants so far:

"An interesting and informative tour’ The tour guide,Edmund, did a good job in answering questions and remembering all the statistics he used to answer those questions’."

"Hi Lamma-Gung. Just wanted to say thanks for organising the tour yesterday. It was very interesting and informative."

"I am a new Lammaite, so 15 Aug is my first time to join the Lamma Power Station tour. Both of us very much enjoyed and had fun on this tour. And we got many infos from HK Electric. We can be so proud of Lamma Power Station to provide electricity for Lamma, Ap Lei Chau and HK Island. Hope to see all of you Lammaites at the 2013 tour."

"I spent my time mostly listening to other peoples' hobby horses, or not hearing what the guide was saying as he was only addressing one person at the other end of the room from me."

"The organisation went smoothly and the refreshments appreciated. Although I suspect there was a lot of coffee wasted as not everyone wants milk and/or sugar. Water would have been welcome.
It appeared that the eco-options of wind and solar were for PR only and are not serious attempts to use those potential power sources. The ability to ask follow-up questions (time was limited) and have them and the answers published on-line would be appreciated by many I think."


Yes, let's do that! Ask questions in this forum and I'll try to get them answered by HK Electric.

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Well, as nobody has asked any more questions in this forum, here are a few questions I've collected during the tour, plus written replies from the tour guide, Edmund Pang:

Progress of Windfarm? Schedule?

Our wind monitoring station was put into operation in March 2012 to collect meteorological and oceanographic data which will be used in the design of wind turbine. The offshore wind farm is targeted for commissioning by end of 2016.

Progress of switch to LPG? What percentage of power generated by LPG right now? By oil?

HK Electric starts using natural gas for power generation in October 2006. In 2011, our gas-fired generation units contributed 33% of total electricity supply while about 2/3 of our electricity generation comes from coal.

Actual power generated by Lamma Winds compared to your Solar Power Station over the last year?

Lamma Winds, with an installed capacity of 800kW, generated 868,000 units of electricity in 2011 while our 550kW solar PV panels produced 691,000 units of green electricity.

Main reasons of tariff differences to CLP (+30%?)

HK Electric and CLP are two companies of difference sizes, using different facilities, with different geographical constraints and serving different mixes of customers. The major reasons for the difference in net tariff are:

1. HK Electric has a higher facility cost due to the use of underground and tunnel cables results high construction costs for network in a congested environment.

2. HK Electric has a lower utilization rate for its facilities due to higher weight of commercial sales which have shorter operating hours concentrated during daytime.

3. HK Electric does not have electricity sales to China to subsidize its local customers.

Laying of optical fiber for Broadband Internet along Cable Road: for HGC’s future Broadband offering to Lammaites?

I reckon it will be more appropriate for HGC to answer this question.

Your air quality monitoring stations on Lamma:
Are they similar to the Govt. pollution metering and can we see the results occasionally. We’d like to compare Lamma’s air quality to HK Island’s.

We have five monitoring stations on the southern part of Hong Kong Island and one monitoring station at Cheung Chau help monitor the impact of Lamma Power Station on ambient air quality. Please refer to the following link for the recorded data of our monitoring stations:

Monitoring station data

So there IS lawn bowling inside the LPS! Other recreational activities for staff?

Lawn bowl green and gym room are provided inside Lamma Power Station for our staff’s use.

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He either confirms nor denies the existence of air monitoring stations on Lamma Island and only refers you to the gov't site that monitors HK island.

HK Electric has agreed to another tour for Lamma residents & family and friends this summer. The provisional date they're suggesting is Wed, Aug 7.

These yearly tours do not run during weekends and are usually scheduled during the summer holidays, unfortunate if you're travelling. Sorry, no children are permitted and safety helmets will be mandatory.

Who'd like to come along? Send me a Private Message, Facebook message (Lamma Gung) or email me at info@Lamma.com.hk.
To keep the attendee list easily co-ordinated and updated, to enroll please no calls, SMS or WhatsApp messages (which I normally all welcome, see top of home page).

Provisional itinerary, photos and feedback from last year's tour:
http://www.lamma.com.hk/forum-OK/viewtopic.php?t=11752&start=14

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More info on the tour on Aug 7, guided by the same friendly, patient and very knowledgeable (electrical engineering degree from a UK university) tour guide as in the last 2 years:

"Please note the maximum group size is 35 and visitors should be 15 years old or above in view of safety.

Similar to last year, we’ll visit the plant facilities in Lamma Power Station including Visitor Centre, solar power system, control centre, turbine hall of gas-fired generating unit & coal yard area.

For duration of visit, it will last for about 2 hours (i.e. 10:30am-12:30pm) and snacks will be provided during the briefing session on operation of plant facilities in Visitor Centre.

If you have any questions, please let me know."

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.