Tokyo's power demand may rise to the highest so far this year as soaring temperatures in Japan's capital force residents and offices to use more air conditioning, the city's main power supplier said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co, which supplies a third of Japan's power, mainly to 27 million customers in and around Tokyo, expected demand to rise to 54,000 megawatts between 2:00pm and 3:00pm Tokyo time, yesterday. The increase would narrow its surplus supply capacity to 10,100 megawatts, from Friday's 11,200 megawatts.
"[Yesterday's] peak demand may be the highest this summer and this year," said Akiko Tanaka, a Tokyo Electric spokeswoman. The utility expects temperatures to rise as high as 31 degrees centigrade today, compared with a 30-year average of 27.2 degrees centigrade for the four weeks that began June 26.
Tokyo Electric has sufficient supply capacity to meet the city's power demand after it received government permission to restart four of its 17 nuclear reactors and agreed to buy power from rivals. It is seeking to restart more nuclear units to secure supplies to the city as summer demand may rise further.
Tokyo's power demand rose to a record 64,500 megawatts of electricity on July 24, 2001, when Tokyo temperatures hit 38.1 degrees centigrade, Tokyo Electric said earlier.
Warmer weather tends to boost demand for electricity as more people use air conditioners. Tokyo's peak power demand has been rising over the past decade with the increased use of coolers in homes.
The company has completed safety checks on four more reactors and is seeking the approval of Niigata and Fukushima prefectures, where the reactors are located, to restart them.
"We haven't heard from the local governments so far," Tanaka said.
Meanwhile, amid a brutal heat wave sweeping France, technicians sprayed cold water on a nuclear power plant to see whether the technique helps keep its reactors from overheating, utility officials said yesterday.
Teams doused a building that contains one of two reactors at the plant in Fessenheim, roughly 70km south of Strasbourg, according to Electricite de France.
Temperatures at the plant rose to 48.5 degrees centigrade, less than two degrees short of the point at which an emergency shutdown would be required.
However, utility officials also said the 50 degrees centigrade limit was simply a safety measure.
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