日文新聞平台

Power utilities are increasingly worried that their aging thermal power plants will start developing problems in the summer, when electricity demand is at its peak, as they attempt to offset the loss of nuclear power caused by the Fukushima disaster.

In fiscal 2013, glitches and other problems caused a total of 169 shutdowns at thermal power plants, according to reports from nine of the country’s 10 regional utilities, excluding Okinawa Electric Power Co.

The figure was up some 70 percent from fiscal 2010, before the magnitude-9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged the Tohoku region in March 2011 and triggered a triple core meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant.

Amid the total reactor shutdown, power suppliers will need to keep their aging thermal plants running at full throttle through the summer to meet demand.

From the beginning of July, customers across the nation but excluding Okinawa will be asked to curb power use, although no numerical target has been set yet.

This summer, the power supply-demand balance is expected to be tight, particularly in the service areas of Kansai Electric Power Co. and Kyushu Electric Power Co.

The two utilities, which serve the Kansai and Kyushu regions, respectively, could see their supply capacities fall below demand if two or more large thermal plants are halted by problems.

The government is expected to consider setting numerical targets if the supply-demand balance becomes tighter.

At nine of the 10 firms, excluding Okinawa Electric, the number of thermal units that were 40 years or older but still active stood at 36 in fiscal 2010. That number jumped to 67 in fiscal 2013, or 26.2 percent of all thermal power units, because utilities reactivated the mothballed units to cope with supply shortages caused by the natural and nuclear disasters.

Aging thermal power plants are prone to trouble. In its fiscal 2013 energy white paper, the government warned that the risks of thermal plant shutdowns rise year by year.

All power firms recently conducted thorough checks of their thermal plants for possible flaws following a request from the government in May.

After the all-out examinations, however, output at the No. 3 unit of Kansai Electric’s Kainan thermal power plant in Wakayama Prefecture was halved briefly last Tuesday because of a problem. The Kainan No. 3 unit is in its 40th year of operation.