The Summer of Power Saving (Setsuden)

Electricity usage on Aug. 24 (source: TEPCO)

Now that the worst of the summer heat is behind us, I guess I can safely venture to say that Japan has successfully taken on the challenge created by the power shortage created by the Tohoku Earthquake and its aftermath. With not only the nuclear power plants actually damaged by the earthquake offline, but many more which the worried population did not allow to come back online after regular inspections, the service capacities of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO in short, or in Japanese, Tokyo Denryoku) are below last summer’s peak demand. In anticipation of this situation, Japan has called on its citizens and businesses to make plans to use at least 15% less electricity than last summer.

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