TEPCO Could End Rolling Blackouts by Next Week

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources East Asia (Kofu-shi, Japan)--Rolling blackouts in the service area of Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9501) (TEPCO) (Tokyo) were implemented after the March 11 earthquake to ease the strain on the area's damaged electrical infrastructure. TEPCO lost half of its operating capacity, which is approximately 40 gigawatts, following the earthquake, mainly due to automatic safety shutdowns at its plants. Nearly 3 million households within TEPCO's service area lost power immediately following the earthquake.

Most of the damage was accrued at substations and a few key power stations, such as Fukushima Daiichi. Transmission lines have also sustained significant amounts of damage.

TEPCO's service area, which includes Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, as well as the Kanto region of Japan, which is comprised of Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures, was broken into five groups that have undergone scheduled blackouts since March 14. Unscheduled blackouts have also occurred in various areas. However, the majority of the affected areas' residents and companies have cooperated with the electricity conservation efforts.

Originally, TEPCO estimated that rolling blackouts might possibly continue through the end of April. However, it has been rumored that these may cease as early as March 27. The restart of mothballed power stations, coupled with power conservation and the restart of undamaged power stations, is bringing TEPCO's power crunch under control. As of Monday, March 21, all substations affected by the earthquake have been restored. On March 15, approximately half a million households were still without power, but as of today, power to these has been completely restored.

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