Holds and production constraints push Japan to save its electricity

To avoid the risk of cutting, the government of the Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, extended, Tuesday, June 28, the alert to the shortage of current.

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Mechanical staircases stopped in department stores, the Tokyo Skytree tower in the dark or staff called to limit overtime. The gestures are multiplying in Tokyo and in northeast Japan to reduce the consumption of electricity and avoid cuts during this period of exceptional heat and forced supply. Anxious to avoid any dissatisfaction with the approach of the senatorial elections of July 10, the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida extended, Tuesday, June 28, the alert to the shortage of current.

Such a alert is issued when the Electricity Companies Safety Reserve passes within 5 %, or even threatens to fall under 3 %. Under this limit, the risk of cuts becomes particularly high. Monday, June 27, the reserve dropped to 3.7 %, at the end of the afternoon. “The demand remains greater than forecasts, in a context of abnormally intense heat,” said the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). “We are asking the population to reduce their energy consumption, especially at the start of the evening, when the reserve decreases,” said government spokesperson Yoshihiko Isozaki. If the temperature increases by 1 ° C, has calculated the Tokyo electricity company (TEPCO), the demand for electricity increases by 1.5 Gigawatt.

To meet demand, Tepco has requested other regional companies. Producer Jera – Coentreprise created by Tepco and the CHUBU electricity company for thermal production – has advanced the restart by two days, planned on 1 er July, from its gas plant of the department of Chiba, east of Tokyo.

prolonged stop of the nuclear fleet

The supply suffers from the difficulties of a network in full transformation to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050. The liberalization, in 2016, of the electricity market exacerbated competition between operators to offer The most advantageous prices. The companies have closed several thermal power plants deemed unprofitable. The development of renewable energies is progressing, but remains subject to the vagaries of the weather.

To this is added the prolonged stop of the nuclear fleet, since the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Some 54 reactors have previously provided 30 % of Japan electricity. Severe safety standards and local oppositions prevent the revival of many of them: only ten are active today. Result: Japan has lost almost a quarter of its electricity production capacities and remains very dependent on fossil fuels, gas or oil, the prices of which increase due to the war in Ukraine.

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