Office Staff Work In Dark As Japan Extends Power-Saving Push
Tokyo’s power crunch showed signs of easing on Tuesday, while Japan’s government made a call for residents to conserve electricity
(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s government called for Tokyo residents to continue conserving electricity by switching off the lights as forecasts for further scorching heat threaten to put more pressure on the grid.
Offices across the city are going dark to help conserve energy. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government turned off lights in some offices Tuesday afternoon, local newspaper Mainichi reported. The municipal government also stopped one of its elevators in an effort to curb power usage, the report said.
Japan’s temperatures for the last 10 days of June are expected to be the hottest for that period in at least 100 years, according to public broadcaster NHK.
High temperatures will continue to strain power supplies as the week progresses, with Japan’s government extending an advisory into Wednesday that calls for households and businesses to curb consumption in Tokyo. The city’s power reserve ratio is expected to drop below a minimum threshold on Wednesday for grid stability, according to data from the network coordinator.
Japan’s power crunch this week comes amid expectations of a long summer of pressure on electricity networks across much of Asia, with blistering heat seen raising demand just as global fuel shortages limit supply. While hotter weather later this week is expected to stretch Tokyo’s grid, it’s unlikely the capital will face blackouts as generation in the rest of the country is strong.
The city’s spot power prices Wednesday afternoon climbed to 200 yen per kilowatt hour, the highest intraday level since January 2021, according to Japan Electric Power Exchange data.
Top Japan steelmakers, including Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Holdings Inc., said they will boost power output from their own generation facilities to help add more supply to the Tokyo region.
Japan recently introduced a new system to warn people to prepare for potential power crunches. Under the new methodology, the government issues a supply advisory a day before if electricity reserve ratios are expected to drop below 5% and will ramp it up to an alert if that figure is seen slipping under 3%, the minimum level necessary for a stable grid.
The power reserve ratio for Tokyo is expected to stay below 3% for much of the afternoon on Wednesday.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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