Japanese utilities sweat over summer electricity demand

Power saving and thermal plant shutdowns delay jump in fossil fuel demand

Japanese utilities conscious of impending peak summer electricity demand are battling to restart not only nuclear plants, but also some thermal power plants in areas affected by last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Prolonged outages of thermal plants may delay any jump in demand for oil, LNG and coal for power generation required to offset nuclear plant losses. One month after the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, the country is still suffering blackouts amid intermittent aftershocks. The government has called on homes and businesses to reduce electricity consumption, while the situation at Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant has been upgraded to the highest possible severity,