Japan’s government on Wednesday asked customers of Kansai Electric Power Co to cut peak summer power use by at least 10 percent, as the country scrambles to avert power shortages that could curtail manufacturing and harm the frail economy.
After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan, several utilities have kept reactors offline due to public concerns about atomic safety.
Kansai, the country’s second-largest utility and which serves the flagship factories of firms including Panasonic Corp and Sharp Corp in western Japan, will only have four of its 11 reactors running at the end of this month after two units go offline for maintenance.
“We would like to avoid measures such as rolling blackouts,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama told a news conference about the government’s request to conserve power. “We would like to do our best to minimize the impact on economic activity from power conservation.”
Kansai shut down one reactor last week due to technical problems. It also plans to shut two other reactors for regular maintenance this week — the 870-megawatt No.4 unit at its Takahama plant on July 21 and the 1,180-MW No.4 reactor at its Ohi facility the day after.
Kansai itself already began asking users on July 1 to cut back on electricity consumption. Since then, the utility has achieved power savings of about 1,400 megawatts, Kansai Electric President Makoto Yagi told a news conference in Osaka on Wednesday. Kansai Electric last year faced peak summer demand of 30,950 MW, on August 19.
The trade ministry said Kansai Electric’s service area would face a 6.2 percent electricity supply shortfall to meet peak demand next month. Western Japan as a whole will face a shortfall of 1.2 percent, reflecting the recent unplanned shutdowns of Kansai’s 1,175 MW Ohi No.1 nuclear reactor and Chugoku Electric Power Co’s 1,000-MW Misumi coal-fired unit, the ministry said.
The March disaster immediately shut 10 reactors — seven of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s and three of Tohoku Electric Power Co’s in quake-hit northeastern Japan — shaving off about 20 percent of Japan’s total nuclear capacity, or 4 percent of total power capacity.
The government has asked large-lot users who buy power from Tokyo Electric and Tohoku to comply with 15 percent cuts, and non-compliance results in a 1 million yen ($12,700) penalty. Cutbacks for Kansai’s customers are voluntary.
Kansai Electric relies on nuclear power for 43 percent of its electricity generation, the highest such ratio among the country’s 10 utilities.
Kansai alone supplied about 17 percent of Japan’s total power generation, while the region it serves accounted for 16 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product in the fiscal year that ended in March 2009, Cabinet Office data shows.
All of Japan’s nuclear reactors could be shut by next April or May if utilities do not receive approval to restart them after they have gone off line for maintenance. If all 54 reactors are shut, Japan’s total power generating capacity would shrink by 20 percent.
