Japan Prepares for Summer Blackouts

Japan: Firms, residents prepare for power outages

Yomiuri,

9 May, 2012

Businesses and local governments, particularly in western Japan, have begun formulating plans to conserve electricity in anticipation of expected power shortages this summer. However, there is frustration because it is unclear how large the electricity shortfalls will be.

With the shutting down of the No. 3 reactor of Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant Saturday, the country has no nuclear power plants in operation. Although reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant may be restarted in the near future, other reactors remain idle, raising fears of severe summer electricity shortages.

Shigeki Iwane, vice president of KEPCO, whose service area is likely to be hit hardest by shortages, said Friday that additional power of a million kilowatts or more can be secured from pumped-storage hydropower if the reactors at the Oi plant were reactivated to provide the electricity necessary for the process.

The remarks were made at a meeting of Osaka prefectural and Osaka city governments' joint headquarters discussing the use of pumped-storage hydropower, in which water is pumped into elevated reservoirs at night when electric demand is low and released as demand rises during the day.

KEPCO initially told the government that if no nuclear reactors were restarted, its supply may fall 16.3 percent short of demand in August. Sources close to KEPCO also said some of KEPCO's service areas could face a more than 10 percent power shortage even if the reactors are restarted.

By using pumped-storage hydropower, it is now possible for KEPCO to reduce the shortage to about 5 percent.

Although good news for the region's economy, the sense of distrust in the government and power companies is believed to have grown due to continually changing projections.

Production moving overseas

Although the government's and utilities' projections have not been officially announced, businesses have begun implementing conservation measures.

In preparation for a request from Shikoku Electric Power Co. to save electricity, Shikoku Railway Co., known as JR Shikoku, started studying the possibility of using diesel cars instead of electric cars or reducing train services in some areas.

However, Masafumi Izumi, the president of JR Shikoku, said switching to diesel cars will increase fuel costs by hundreds of millions of yen.

Ezaki Glico Co. is going to use in-house power generation to cover electricity shortages at its confectionery and ice cream factories located in KEPCO's service ares. The company also said it is considering evening operations.

Ice cream maker Takeshita Seika Co. in Ogi, Saga Prefecture, with sales mainly in the Kyushu region, will shift its production peak--usually running to the end of July--ahead by one month.

However, a company official said they are concerned as refrigerators cannot be used if power outages occur.

Nidec Corp., a major small precision motor manufacturer, moved operations that use large amounts of electricity overseas earlier in the year, while maintaining employment.

If more companies move their operations overseas, domestic employment may suffer.

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura told reporters on April 27 that the economy will collapse if nuclear power plants are not reactivated. "Foreign companies that have plants in the Kansai region are also facing a very difficult situation," he said.

Impact on daily life

Last month, the Osaka city government invited an official from the Tokyo metropolitan government, where an order restricting electricity consumption was in place last summer, to give a lecture on how to win the cooperation of businesses and households in saving electricity.

But fears of large-scale power outages persist.

The Kyoto prefectural government is studying plans to send all employees home--except in such places as hospitals--once it is informed that power consumption is likely to exceed 97 percent of capacity in KEPCO's service areas this summer. Work they are unable to do as a result will be done on Saturdays and Sundays.

Midori Orita, 50, an official of Bakubaku-no-kai, a national organization of parents with children on artificial respirators, said correct information on planned outages, if carried out, is necessary since devices such as those to clear airways can only run for 20 to 40 minutes without electricity even with battery backups.

Nobuhiko Hazeki, 46, who runs an architectural firm in Kagoshima, said local circumstances should be taken into account in regards to planned outages.

"It's not possible to turn off the air-conditioning and open windows to save electricity as ash falls when Sakurajima, an active volcano, erupts," Hazeki said.