Japan power plant shutdown raises fear of shortage in sweltering heat

Japan’s electricity grid creaked on Thursday under the strain of Tokyo’s hottest June since records began, with the unexpected shutdown of a power plant raising fears that tens of millions of people could be deprived of power on another scorching day.

Temperatures of around 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) were expected in some parts of greater Tokyo, home to 37 million people, on the sixth day of a heatwave that began after the earliest end to the capital’s rainy season in decades.

With power producers scrambling to bring nearly 50-year-old turbines out of mothballs, the closure of a 600-megawatt (MW) plant in northern Japan that sends supplies to Tokyo came with reserve power capacity hovering around 3% - the level below which blackouts can occur.

Operator Joban Kyodo Thermal Power Company cited unexplained technical issues for the closure but said that parts of the plant had been restarted as of 1 p.m., media reports said. ...continue reading