Japan's Chubu Electric seeks power saving in winter

Chubu Electric Power would join other utilities in Japan in asking its customers to keep saving power this winter due to lack of enough surplus to meet peak-hour demand.

Japan's utilities have boosted fossil fuel-fired power output to make up the gap from a fall in nuclear plant utilisation after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered an atomic crisis in Fukushima in March.

Chubu shut its sole nuclear plant in Hamaoka, 200 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, in May to meet a rare government request to do so amid concerns it could be hit by an earthquake.

The shutdown of the plant has boosted the firm's fuel procurement costs and tightened power supply in its service area in central Japan.

The firm has, however, managed to avoid carrying out rolling blackouts, helped by voluntary energy saving from some large users, including auto makers, which worked on weekends this summer upon Chubu's request.

The full story is available at Reuters.