Nahian Arefin: Japan tried its best to recover the power stations of the northern island of Hokkaido which were damaged by a devastating earthquake.
The government tried their best to generate the stations before winter because Hokkaido’s temperature regularly drops well below zero in colder months.
Work is going on rapidly to bring back the broken generators and idle power plants into operation. The progress is taking place fast since winter is appearing soon when the temperature of Hakkaido can reach as low as minus 41 degrees Celsius.
Power demand on Hokkaido in winter is typically more than a third higher than what is required in the warmer months before.
The government has unfixed an initial 20% power-savings target for 5.3 million people living on the island.
According to Hiroshige Seko, the trade and industry minister of Japan, power supply on Hokkaido will remain tight and unspecified savings are still needed.
“The harsh reality is that we have to ask for power savings every winter in Hokkaido,” said the minister yesterday.
Answering the question if they can supply enough power against the rising demand, he said it was too early to say anything about that.
Seko said earlier this week, “It will take more than a month to restart the Tomato-Atusuma power station fully.”
Electric engineers of Hokkaido, he said, cannot inspect its No. 4 unit, the biggest, because it is still too hot after a fire broke out in its turbine.
Depending on the damage, repairing or replacing turbines can take weeks or months.
The Hokkaido Electric took some steps to cover the shortage. They brought the utility of two hydro-electric units at its Kyogoku plant yesterday. They also plan to restart three oil-fired units maintenance.