Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEx) has appointed Ove Arup & Partners to examine the failure of the UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) system that blacked out the derivatives market for over an hour on Tuesday afternoon.
Futures and options trading on the HKEx was interrupted at 3:12pm on Tuesday 28 May due to a power failure. The UPS failed to immediately takeover, as it was meant to, with conversion to the alternative backup data centre taking place at 4:00pm. Trading of EFN futures, Hibor futures and international stock futures and options resumed at 4:30pm.
A preliminary investigation of the incident revealed that one unit in the UPS failed to takeover because its batteries were dead. The other unit took over briefly then failed due to a bad contact between the unit and its batteries.
According to HKEx, Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong will start work on Friday 31 May and the exchange expects to receive a report in approximately two weeks. The consultants will be reviewing the design and installation of the UPS system for the derivatives market's data centre and the scope of the maintenance work on the UPS system by the company that supplied and serviced the UPS system.
The investigation will also review the report made by the UPS supplier on the cause of failure of the UPS system - which is expected to be submitted by Tuesday 4 June - and recommend any changes that would strengthen the data centre's backup power arrangements.