Stationary escalators in department stores, the Tokyo Skytree tower in the dark or staff called to limit overtime. Gestures are multiplying in Tokyo and in the northeast of Japan to reduce electricity consumption and avoid cuts in this period of exceptional heat and constrained supply. Anxious to avoid any discontent with the approach of the senatorial elections of July 10, the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida extended, on Tuesday June 28, the alert to the shortage of electricity.
Such an alert is issued when the security reserve of electricity companies falls below 5%, or even threatens to fall below 3%. Below this limit, the risk of cuts becomes particularly high. Monday, June 27, the reserve fell to 3.7% at the end of the afternoon. “Demand remains higher than forecast, in a context of abnormally intense heat”explained the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). “We are asking the population to reduce their energy consumption, especially in the early evening, when the reserve is decreasing”, insisted the government spokesman, Yoshihiko Isozaki. If the temperature increases by 1°C, calculated the Tokyo Electricity Company (Tepco), the demand for electricity increases by 1.5 gigawatts.
To meet the demand, Tepco approached other regional companies. The producer JERA – a joint venture created by Tepco and the electricity company of Chubu for the production of thermal origin – brought forward the restart by two days, scheduled for 1er July, from its gas-fired power plant in Chiba County, east of Tokyo.
Prolonged shutdown of the nuclear fleet
Supply is suffering from the difficulties of a network in full transformation to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050. The liberalization of the electricity market in 2016 has exacerbated competition between operators to offer the lowest tariffs. more advantageous. The companies have closed several thermal power plants deemed unprofitable. The development of renewable energies is progressing, but remains subject to the vagaries of the weather.
Added to this is the prolonged shutdown of the nuclear fleet, since the Fukushima disaster of 2011. Some 54 reactors previously provided 30% of Japan’s electricity. Strict safety standards and local opposition are preventing the relaunch of many of them: only ten are in operation today. Result: Japan has lost nearly a quarter of its electricity production capacity and remains very dependent on fossil fuels, gas or oil, the prices of which are rising due to the war in Ukraine.
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