Businesses and residents in Tokyo were told on Tuesday to limit the use of electricity to prevent the sprawl phenomenon in the world’s largest city from falling into a power outage.
The warning affected the capital and the surrounding area, which is home to about 45 million people, and several thermal power plants were shut down due to a severe earthquake in the Tohoku region last week. The quake put pressure on the grid, which is already tense due to the 11-year closure of most nuclear facilities in the country.
The power outage warning issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry was the first warning since the system was installed due to the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake.
The affected area is covered by TEPCO and its reputation remains undermined by the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. A second warning was issued later on Tuesday in the northeastern region covered by Tohoku Electric Power.
The warning urged businesses and private homes to reduce their total consumption by about 60 million kilowatt hours, or about 10 percent of their estimated demand from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm.
TEPCO thanked its customers and the wider community for its power-saving efforts, stating that it was able to maintain a stable power supply on Tuesday in a statement after 11:00 pm. However, the company says it will continue to request power saving if it “does not interfere with daily life.”
The alarm went off after the area’s reserve power fell below 3% of its total capacity. According to TEPCO, between 11:00 am and noon, the ratio of demand to electricity supply capacity reached 103%, the highest of the four severity levels.
Trade Minister Hagiuda expected the electricity supply to be very tight and sought cooperation to save electricity “as much as possible.”
The power crunch was in line with the unusually cold weather around Tokyo in the snow forecast on Tuesday afternoon.
On the night of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake last week, more than 2 million homes in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, suffered a power outage, which in some cases continued until the next day. According to the government, the quake initially took more than 6 GW of electricity capacity offline, about half of which remained down.
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Even before the earthquake last week killed three people and injured 225, senior policymakers within the ruling Liberal Party reduced electricity usage to people as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine boosted global energy. I personally discussed the need for “national impetus” to persuade. price.
Yuriy Humber, founder of energy consultancy Japan NRG, said the warning reminds us of Japan’s high reliance on thermal energy, primarily coal and gas.
“I’m a little surprised how long this could be,” said Mr. Hamburg, who wants the government to avoid the prospect of asking the world’s oldest population to save electricity in the year of the election. I added that it was.
He said the fact that the warning was issued suggested that the damage done by the tremor last week may be greater than was perceived.
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