Cold wave forces TEPCO to seek help from peers

January 26, 2018

Tokyo- TEPCO Power Grid Inc. received electricity from three other regional power suppliers on Thursday to cope with a surge in electricity demand mainly for heating in its service area due to a cold wave.

The unit of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. secured such supply support for the third straight day.

During the peak hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday (9 a.m. to 10 a.m. GMT), the company received up to one million kilowatts in total from Tohoku Electric Power Co. , Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co..

TEPCO Power Grid plans to seek such support on Friday as well.

Also, the company on Monday started to use the so-called negawatt system, under which it makes payments to business customers, including offices and plants, in exchange for their measures to save power consumption.

It is the first time for TEPCO Power Grid to actually use the scheme since it was introduced in April 2017.

On Thursday, TEPCO's peak-hour power supply capacity had been predicted to be 3.5 pecent above the estimated peak-hour demand, only slightly higher than the minimum required margin of 3.0 percent for stable supply.

With the support from the three peers, the spare capacity rate rose to 5.0 percent, according to preliminary data.

Without such support, the rate is projected to fall to 2.2 percent on Friday. Jiji Press