The story of CLP is the story of the Hong Kong people. The company and the community have stood shoulder to shoulder for the past 120 years and have grown, flourished, and prospered together.
It is a tale of partnerships and trust, of hard work and determination, and of struggles and triumphs spanning the decades and forging a remarkable and unbreakable bond between CLP and the people of Hong Kong.
To celebrate CLP’s anniversary, a booklet titled “120 Years of Shared Vision” has been published. It casts a light on the people and the experiences in the extraordinary shared history of the company and the Hong Kong community, highlighting the significance of sustainability.
The journey connects eras and generations, passing through periods of conflict and crisis as well as periods of prosperity and economic transformation. Here are extracts of some of the stories the booklet tells:
The father-and-son story of the Sharma family encompasses the cornerstones of CLP’s success over the past 120 years – cultural diversity, the cultivation of talent, and, above all, the passing of talent from one generation to the next.
Ved Prakash Sharma first joined CLP as an engineer at Hok Un Power Station in 1977, relocating from India to Hong Kong to be with the woman he wanted to marry.
Twenty years later, he headed home to take the helm of CLP’s newly formed India business unit, which later became CLP India.
The company he helped created – now known as Apraava Energy – has become one of the largest foreign investors in India and proudly upholds CLP’s ethos of caring for the communities in which it operates.
Ved Prakash retired in 2011 after a career of more than 30 years with CLP, and his son Sandeep, who felt a part of the CLP family from childhood when he grew up living in company quarters, followed in his footsteps.
Sandeep became an electrical engineer and joined CLP in 2004 as a graduate trainee when the company was at crossroads not only between generations of employees but also generations of energy.
He has focussed on emerging sources of renewable energy and is now CLP’s Associate Director of Planning and Development (China), responsible for exploring business opportunities in a market with immense potential.
Even though the father and son have never worked together, Sandeep says he has been guided by the values of CLP and his father’s life lessons.
“I remember my father once scolded me for taking company worksheets home. To him, whether it was a piece of paper or a pen, it belonged to the company and that’s part of having integrity,” Sandeep says with a smile.
“Now, whenever I work in developing countries, I learn more about the importance of ethics, integrity, and safety. They are CLP’s core values.”
Mui Tsz Lam on the Sha Tau Kok peninsula was once a thriving Hakka community where, for more than 300 years, locals farmed the hillsides and passed on agricultural skills from one generation to the next.
However, when the rush for modernisation took hold in the 1970s, villagers relocated to urban areas and Mui Tsz Lam was left with barren farmland, empty houses, and a village with no electricity and water.
It remained a forgotten backwater for nearly 30 years until, in 2001, village head Tsang Yuk On gave up his job and returned to Mui Tsz Lam with a plan to revitalise the village where he grew up.
It wasn’t an easy task. He had to overcome opposition from some village elders and wait years to receive the government subsidies to realise his dream.
Finally, in 2019, CLP restored electricity to Mui Tsz Lam and other nearby Hakka villages. With only rough tracks leading to the villages, engineers cut their way through dense undergrowth to set up pole-mounted transformers, and laid five kilometres of underground cables to put Mui Tsz Lam on the grid.
The two-year long power supply project lit up the villages and the lives of their communities. Mui Tsz Lam has since become a popular spot for visitors. It has a display of wall art by emerging artists and an architectural study is currently being carried out on Tsang’s own ancestral home.
The story of Mui Tsz Lam’s transformation demonstrates how heritage is at the heart of rural sustainability – and how one man’s determination can reconnect people to a priceless past.
Explaining the motivation behind his mission, Tsang says: “Never forget where everything comes from. Life is short and I decided I had to act.”
The Michelin-recommended Kung Wo Beancurd Factory on bustling Pei Ho Street in Sham Shui Po is one of Hong Kong’s most iconic food shops. The 130-year-old business is currently run by the fourth generation of the family that founded it.
Director Renee So gave up a well-paid job to take over the family business in 2016 at a time when it faced an existential crisis, after discovering it needed a food business licence and a major electrical upgrade to stay open.
CLP’s engineers provided So with expert advice and a solution which would involve temporarily suspending the power supply not only to the business but to the entire building.
Thanks to the close relationship her parents had built in the community, So was able to get support from her neighbours and complete the upgrade to keep the shop in business.
After the licence was issued, So took steps to develop the business further by modernising the kitchen and replacing all the gas cookers with electric ones, despite an initial insistence from her father and other employees that an open flame made food taste better.
“Resistance to change is a natural reaction and fostering mutual trust is the key to making changes,” she says. So’s father and employees were eventually won around and the overhaul has created simpler workflows and lower kitchen temperatures.
So is now giving back to the neighbours and community by sharing her business knowledge with social enterprises, taking a role in local food revitalisation projects, and cooperating with a variety of organisations in promoting the uniqueness of Sham Shui Po.
Her story illustrates the resilience and can-do spirit of Hong Kong people and shows how a small, family-owned business can make an outsized contribution to the richness of the community.
So’s success in finding a new direction for her business with the help of CLP also reflects the trust and partnership that has carried the company and the community together through the years into exciting new eras of opportunity.
