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.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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