Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - The pressure of Tokyo's warmest June stretch since 1875 caused Japan's energy grid to squeak on ...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - The pressure of Tokyo's warmest June stretch since 1875 caused Japan's energy grid to squeak on Thursday, and the unexpected shutdown of a power plant put tens of millions of people one step closer to blackouts that would stop air conditioners.
On the sixth day of a heatwave that started following the earliest conclusion to the capital's rainy season in decades, temperatures of nearly 40 C were anticipated in certain districts of greater Tokyo, which is home to 37 million people. Before next Tuesday, maximum highs are not expected to fall below 30 C.
The unexpected shutdown of a 600 megawatt (MW) plant in northern Japan that supplies supplies to Tokyo came with reserve power capacity hovering around 3 percent - the level below which blackouts can occur. Power producers were already scrambling to bring nearly 50-year-old turbines out of mothballs.
Operator Joban Kyodo Thermal Power Company attributed the closure to unexplained technical problems and added that no date for a resumption had been set. Officials from the industry ministry stated that they anticipated the plant to be operational again on Thursday night.
According to a mid-morning assessment from the national grid watchdog OCCTO, the reserve ratio of power generation capacity for the Tokyo area could drop as low as 3 percent on Thursday between 4.30 and 5 p.m. local time.
For the fourth day in a row, the industry ministry has issued a power shortage warning for areas surrounding Tokyo, urging both homes and businesses to conserve electricity as much as they can without forgoing air conditioning where it might endanger the health of the weak as hospitalizations for heatstroke rise.
Yorozu Corp, a manufacturer of auto parts, has announced that it will reduce the number of manufacturing shifts, while Seven & I Holdings, a retailer, and Sony, a global leader in technology, have asked employees to conserve energy by, among other things, turning off unnecessary lighting and devices.
Nissan Motor, an automobile manufacturer, announced this week that its Tochigi facility in northern Tokyo will start using internal power generators from Wednesday through Friday. Nissan Motor also urged businesses to conserve energy whenever feasible.
Although July doesn't officially start until this Friday, the Japanese government and utilities have been planning since the spring to handle the limited power supplies during the high summer demand.
The Fukushima earthquakes in March, a long-term decline in the number of thermal power plants due to efforts to reduce carbon emissions, and delays in the restart of nuclear reactors due to stricter regulations in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011 all contributed to the tightening of the belt.
The government and utilities planned to address it by restarting outdated gas-fired power plants and altering the maintenance timetable for nuclear reactors.
In an effort to make up for potential power shortages, JERA, the nation's largest power producer, is restarting two older units this week: a 44-year-old gas-fired unit in central Japan's Chita on Friday and a 45-year-old gas-fired unit in Anegasaki, close to Tokyo, on Thursday.
