Energy-saving plans for summer

May 10, 2012

Panel warns of electricity shortages, power-saving requirements

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120510p2g00m0dm116000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A government panel of experts said Thursday that areas covered by three utilities, including such major cities as Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo, are expected to face electricity shortages this summer if all of Japan's nuclear reactors remain idled and summer temperatures reach 2010 levels.

Electricity supply and demand is expected to be especially tight in Kansai Electric Power Co.'s service area in western Japan, with the maximum demand there estimated to exceed the utility's supply capacity by 15.7 percent in August, the panel said in a draft summary report.

The government is expected to compile energy-saving plans for the coming summer as early as next week, by setting power-saving targets mainly for the regions covered by the three utilities including Kyushu Electric Power Co. and Hokkaido Electric Power Co.

For Kansai Electric's service area, the government will likely consider whether to issue an order to restrict the use of electricity by companies.

The government presented to the panel's fifth meeting Thursday an estimate that if two offline reactors at Kansai Electric's Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture resume operation, the utility's power shortage rate will narrow to 0.9 percent, backing its claim that restarting them is necessary.

The panel also estimated that areas covered by Kyushu Electric and Hokkaido Electric will face power shortages of 3.7 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

As a result, supply of electricity by nine of Japan's 10 utilities is likely to fall short of maximum demand by 0.3 percent.

Given the severe electricity supply conditions after the Fukushima nuclear crisis, the panel said people's further power-saving efforts as well as new systems to effectively cut the use of electricity, such as the introduction of a price menu that set higher electricity rates for peak hours, would be necessary.

The panel plans to finalize its summary report Saturday.

Amid heightened public concern over nuclear safety after the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi power plant, no Japanese reactors that were halted for scheduled checkups have been restarted.

Japan's last operating commercial nuclear reactor at Hokkaido Electric's Tomari plant went offline on May 5 for mandatory routine maintenance, leaving the nation without atomic-generated electricity for the first time in 42 years.

The government is trying to restart the Oi plant's Nos. 3 and 4 reactors to cope with an expected rise in electricity use this summer. But its efforts to regain public support for restarting the Oi reactors appear to have made little headway in the wake of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Last year, power supply constraints in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis resulted in rolling blackouts and led the government's to issue its first electricity-saving order in 37 years in eastern Japan.