The beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering moving to a rotating system of electricity supply from Monday to deal with an expected deficiency in power.
The beleaguered Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering moving to a rotating system of electricity supply from Monday to deal with an expected deficiency in power.
A formal decision on whether to implement supply rationing will be made Sunday afternoon.
Not only are the two nuclear power plants in Fukushima Prefecture not operating due to damage from Friday's catastrophic earthquake, but a number of thermal power plants along the Pacific coast have also stopped operations.
Tohoku Electric Power Co. has also been hit by massive power outages due to the magnitude 9.0 quake.
TEPCO officials are expecting a power shortfall in the range of 10 megawatts from Monday when the new work week begins. That amount is equivalent to what 3.33 million households would use.
Under the rotating supply system, certain communities would be without power for a predetermined amount of time. TEPCO officials plan to stop power supply in units of 5 megawatts.
In March, electricity demand peaks between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Under the rotating supply system, power would be cut for about three hours, including times when demand peaks. TEPCO would announce beforehand which communities would be affected.
When thermal power plants return to normal operations, some of the deficiency could be made up, but with TEPCO fighting to prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plants, a restoration of electricity supply from those plants is not realistic.
Because there has been no damage to power plants operated by Japan's eight other electric power companies, surplus supply could be sent from those companies.
However, different power generation equipment was installed during the Meiji Era (1868-1912) when Japan began its modernization. That difference means that electric power transmission in eastern and western Japan uses different frequencies. As a result, electric power cannot easily be transmitted from western Japan to eastern Japan.
There are three frequency conversion points that allows for transmission between western and eastern Japan, but those points can only provide a maximum of 1 megawatt of power.