Earthquake aftermath: Japan fighting to avoid mass power cuts

Govt officials warned power supply is expected to fall short of demand Tuesday evening, and officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. said there could be partial outages if the supply squeeze continues

Japan is scrambling to keep the lights on in Tokyo as frigid weather and power plant outages from last week’s earthquake put the nation’s capital at risk of blackouts.

Government officials warned power supply is expected to fall short of demand Tuesday evening, and officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. said there could be partial outages if the supply squeeze continues.

Unplanned disruptions across the Tokyo and Tohoku regions could begin from 8 p.m. local time and plunge between 2 to 3 million buildings into darkness until around 11 p.m., Tepco said. The utility said its pumped hydro facilities will stop operating in the evening when reservoirs are drained, curbing power output.

Households and businesses should reduce power consumption as much as possible, Trade Minister Koichi Hagiuda said. Those measures may need to continue through this week, he said.

The government had on Monday issued its first-ever electricity supply alert for the Tokyo area under a system implemented after the 2011 Fukushima disaster. 

The country’s power supplies have been stretched thin since last week’s strong earthquake, which struck in the northeast and took several power plants offline. Japan has very limited power reserves, as utilities retire older oil-powered plants and most nuclear reactors remain shut after Fukushima.

Though unplanned outages would be mostly random, key infrastructure like hospitals have installed backup generators since 2011, meaning they will be able to continue operations for hours after the grid goes dark.

Tepco said it currently isn’t planning to implement a series of managed, rolling blackouts that could ease strain on the grid, arguing there’s not enough time to warn customers.