【明報專訊】THE GOVERNMENT has reached with CLP and Hongkong Electric new Scheme of Control Agreements (SCAs), under which the two power companies' permitted rate of return (RoR), which is now 9.99%, will come down to 8%. The government claims the new SCAs will help bring down citizens' electricity bills, increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions for coping with climate change. It calls them "the greenest agreements" it has ever reached with the power companies and says they are in keeping with the public aspirations expressed during the 2015 public consultation. That is quite pleasant to the ear, but the fact remains that the two power companies have again got the authorities' guarantee that they will make only profits and no losses and that, in the next fifteen years, neither will be faced with any pressure in connection with the opening up of the electricity market.