International Law

Government report on electricity

By Karl-Friedrich Lenz

This report was distributed at a meeting at METI on March 25. It gives some numbers to note about the current crisis.

TEPCO had a capacity of 52 Gigawatt before the quake. That was reduced to only 31 Gigawatt immediately after the quake and is expected to return to 36 by end of March. 9 Gigawatt of the loss are from the plants at Fukushima, 12 from disruption of fossil fuel plants.

They hope to get back to 45 by summer.

Peak usage after the quake was between 29 and 37, a lower figure than the 41 they anticipated from last year’s records and accounting for the quake. That of course means that they scheduled much more blackouts than actually needed.

Last year’s summer peak was on July 23 at 60 Gigawatt. They expect a peak load of 55 this year, leaving them 10 Gigawatt short.

To avoid blackouts big changes in the style of  economic activity and lifestyle are necessary.

Industrial users will be asked to have longer and distributed summer vacations periods. Plants and offices will be asked to shorten active hours. Production should be moved to facilities in western Japan.

They also think of rationing electricity and of enhancing investment in energy saving technology or using gas instead of electricity.

For consumers, the report asks for more energy-saving appliances and smart grid applications. See also this post yesterday about subsidies for10.000 new home solar systems.

Full post as published by Lenz Blog on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).