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Japan fighting to avoid mass power cuts after earthquake last week
The country’s power supplies have been stretched thin since last week’s strong earthquake, which struck in the northeast and took several power plants offline.
Japan is scrambling to keep the lights on in Tokyo on Tuesday, as freezing temperatures and power plant outages after last week’s earthquake put the nation’s capital at risk of blackouts.
The situation across the Tokyo area is “extremely tight,” and there could be partial power outages if the supply shortfall continues, according to an official at Tokyo Electric Power Co., who added that there currently aren’t plans for rolling blackouts. The metropolis’ power supply is expected to fall short of demand in the evening, the country’s trade ministry warned.
The ministry called for further power conservation efforts, saying that it might need to make stronger requests for users depending on the situation during the day. Households and businesses need to reduce power consumption as much as possibe, Trade Minister Koichi Hagiuda said earlier, after the government issued its first-ever electricity supply alert for the Tokyo area.
The country’s power supplies have been stretched thin since last week’s strong earthquake, which struck in the northeast and took several power plants offline. Japan has very limited power reserves, as utilities retire older oil-powered plants and most nuclear reactors remain shut after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Japan has ordered nearly all of the nation’s regional utilities to send spare power supplies to the Tokyo area, according to a statement from the grid coordinator on Tuesday. Tepco is to receive as much as 1.4 gigawatts from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, it said.
Tepco expects to see peak demand at around 4 to 5 p.m. local time, it said on the website. The company sees power demand outstripping supply, with reserves falling as low as -4.8% on Tuesday. Tohoku Electric Power Co., which services the area next to Tokyo, expects reserves to fall as low as 0% and has also asked its users to conserve power. A prolonged drop below 1% could trigger rolling blackouts.
JFE Holdings Inc.’s steel-making unit has been asked by Tepco to conserve electricity and increase output from its own power generation facilities in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The company has not been asked to reduce production and will maintain operations and delivery, the spokesperson said.
