Nissan Japan plant opens today amid power crunch

Nissan's plant is busily rolling out the Leaf electric car and other models today, having shifted production schedules for an aggressive nationwide effort to fight the power crunch created by a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant.

"Setsuden," or "save electricity," is now Japan's biggest buzzword. The March 11 disaster sent several reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant into meltdowns, prompting the government to demand that major companies, shopping malls and universities reduce electricity consumption by 15 per cent.

Starting today, Nissan Motor Co and other Japanese automakers are working weekends and instead taking Thursday and Friday off.

The reworked schedule is for July, August and parts of September, to spread out electricity consumption at plants and offices during peak power-need periods.

"This is an emergency," Nissan Senior Manager in charge of environment and energy control Yuji Kishi said during a tour of the Oppama auto plant for reporters.

The setsuden program applies to office workers as well, who are starting their days early at 8 am.

Those needing to do overtime are restricted to certain floors, so the rest of the headquarters building in Yokohama can go dark, all in the name of setsuden.

Kishi said Nissan is already simulating electricity use for next year, assuming all nuclear plants are shutdown, to be prepared to slash electricity use by an even bigger 25 per cent compared to last year.

"It will be a tough challenge," he said. "But it is not impossible for us."

Nissan showed its beefed up "smart meter" control room, which had been set up under normal times to monitor electricity consumption at its auto plants.

Now, the series of large-screen monitors and computers more closely watch electricity consumption, even at its headquarters and technical center offices, and predict what the use would be 30 minutes ahead, so assembly lines or air conditioning can be shut down, if needed.

Setsuden has grown evident everywhere.

Trains are running on reduced schedules, escalators and elevators have stopped running, neon signs are turned off and the usually suit-clad "salarymen" have begun to wear T-shirts and go tie-less in "Super Cool Biz" attire to survive thermostats at 28 degrees Celsius (82 Fahrenheit).

Toyota Motor Corp, the world's top automaker, is carrying out similar setsuden efforts, including turning off room lights, and setting computers to power-consumption mode, spokeswoman Kayo Doi said.