Kansai Electric Power Co. said it is ready to restart two reactors at its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture in response to the government’s decision on June 16 to resume operations.
Kansai Electric Power Co. said it is ready to restart two reactors at its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture in response to the government’s decision on June 16 to resume operations.If all goes smoothly, the No. 3 reactor is expected to reach full output in early July, followed by the No. 4 reactor later in the month.The government said it will review electricity-saving goals for this summer while monitoring the restart work at the KEPCO plant.The government has requested that power demand in KEPCO’s service area be reduced by 15 percent or more this summer. However, it expects the actual figure will be between 5 percent and 10 percent.In the service areas of Chubu Electric Power Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co. and Chugoku Electric Power Co., the government has demanded that power demand be cut by 5 percent as the three utilities will be required to offer surplus electricity to KEPCO.However, the 5-percent cut will likely be abolished.In the service area of Shikoku Electric Power Co., the power-saving goal of 7 percent will be eased to 5 percent.However, Yukio Edano, minister of economy, trade and industry, said, “Unless the reactors at Oi nuclear plant can generate electricity as scheduled, we cannot change the power-saving targets.”This suggests the government will carefully consider when to alter the power-saving reductions.Meanwhile, the government has demanded that power demand in the service areas of Hokkaido Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co. be reduced by 7 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Those cuts will be unchanged as the two utilities will not be affected by the restart of the reactors at the Oi plant.In the service areas of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku-Electric Power Co., power-saving cuts have not been set. However, the government is demanding that companies and private citizens in those areas save on electricity usage whenever possible.