The central government on July 20 called on people and businesses across Japan to cut their electric power usage this summer, excluding only Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, and Okinawa, the southernmost island where no nuclear power plants are located.
The central government on July 20 called on people and businesses across Japan to cut their electric power usage this summer, excluding only Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, and Okinawa, the southernmost island where no nuclear power plants are located.
The request, which comes on the heels of a legal energy-saving order for eastern Japan earlier this month, will likely deal an additional blow to manufacturers already bracing for tough times ahead because of a stronger yen and an early hot summer.
The government asked businesses and people in the Kansai, Hokuriku, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu regions to cut down on electricity this summer amid projected shortfalls in power supplies resulting from suspended operations of nuclear and thermal power plants.
The request came after the government ordered large electricity users in the Kanto and Tohoku regions on July 1 to cut electricity usage this summer by 15 percent from last summer's peak use. The regions' supply has been in jeopardy after power facilities were disabled by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Power shortfalls are expected to be serious in the Kansai region, where a shortage of 6.2 percent in power supply against peak time use has been forecast.
The government called for at least a 10 percent cut between July 25 and Sept. 22 in the Kansai region, which is served by Kansai Electric Power Co.
Kansai Electric's margin for compliance will be tight since a reactor with a capacity for 1.175 gigawatts at its Oi plant in Fukui Prefecture was shut down this month due to problems.
Chugoku Electric Power Co.'s supply has also been compromised after its Misumi thermal power plant, with a capacity for 1 gigawatt, in Shimane Prefecture, suspended operations this month due to glitches.
In jurisdictions of western Japan served by Kansai Electric, Chugoku Electric, Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co., a combined 1.2 percent electricity shortfall is expected.
The government request for saving electricity in these jurisdictions is not mandatory, unlike the decree for the Kanto and Tohoku regions based on the Electric Utilities Industry Law.
Except for the Kansai region, the government did not include a numerical target for conservation.
For the Chubu region in western Japan, the government called for voluntary conservation when Prime Minister Naoto Kan asked Chubu Electric Power Co. in May to shut down its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, citing its vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunami.
Japan has a total of 54 commercial reactors, supplying about 30 percent of the overall electricity before the March 11 disaster.
Meanwhile, it is unclear when nuclear reactors that have been offline for regular inspections will resume operation.
Coupled with heightened safety concerns among local officials, the government's plan to conduct safety tests for all the nation's reactors has made it difficult to predict when they will be able to restart.
If nuclear reactors that have been offline for maintenance are not restarted, all the reactors in the nation will be idle by next spring.
"It is difficult to respond, particularly for businesses that have been mulling a shift (in production) from east to west," Yasuchika Hasegawa, chairman of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), said at a news conference on July 20. "They may be feeling, 'You too, Kansai Electric.'"
Businesses that have moved their operations elsewhere in the country due to the limited power supply may be forced to take additional steps.
Analysts said with a stronger Japanese currency--reaching 78-yen levels to the dollar--businesses will likely be tempted to consider shifting their production overseas while the government continues to flip-flop over the country's energy policy after the nuclear crisis.
The government's call for saving electricity in wider areas has baffled many manufacturers that have production bases in the western part of the country or shifted them from other parts of the country.
"At present, we are not sure if we can achieve a 10 percent cut for sure," said a representative of Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
About 40 percent of its production facilities are located in the Kansai region, manufacturing an array of products and equipment from chips for cellphones and electric power facilities to railway-related equipment.
Reducing electricity usage is expected to have a major impact on the company's operations, the official said.
The company is considering operating part of its plants late at night and use in-house power generators to conserve electricity.
Fujitsu Ltd. has already moved 20 percent of its servers for research and development in the Tokyo metropolitan area to Hyogo and Toyama prefectures out of concern over power supplied by the Tokyo Electric Power Co.
The company said that the servers will not be returned to the Tokyo metropolitan area because the step is partly meant to disperse risk.
Fujitsu is looking at new measures to reduce electricity use in response to the government's conservation request on July 20.
JFE Steel Corp. plans to cut production at its steel plants in the cities of Kawasaki and Chiba this summer, bolstering output at its plants in the prefectures of Hiroshima and Okayama instead.
But the suspension of operation at Chugoku Electric's Misumi thermal plant this month has raised fears of power shortages in Hiroshima and Okayama prefectures.
Still, Eiji Hayashida, president of JFE Steel, said the company had no choice but to comply with the government's request.
"We should do the utmost we can do to cooperate," he said.
Rolling blackouts were put in place in the spring in the Kanto region, served by TEPCO, operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The ministry plans to avert rolling blackouts in western Japan through conservation efforts, contracts with big electricity users that oblige them to cut down usage when the power supply is tight and diversion of electricity from other electric utilities.