Officials at Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Sunday announced that the Kanto area, consisting of Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, will be subject to daily rolling blackouts of approximately three hours beginning on Monday. This is due to the need to take nuclear power plants offline as a result of Friday’s monumental earthquake and tsunami.
The blackout will affect all users, including hospitals and traffic lights. The company expects the blackouts to last through the end of April, but they will resume in summer when demand for air conditioning reaches a peak.
Cold-storage facilities and store freezers should be able to maintain frozen conditions for three hours, but retail outlets may have to close for part of the day for lack of interior lighting or to keep freezers and chillers closed or covered.
Extended blackouts beyond the planned three hours may pose seafood spoilage risks. This may lead to retailers refraining from stocking chilled items such as fresh fish.
Power consumers in other areas of the country are asked to conserve electricity by shutting off unneeded lights and congregating in a single room of the house. Supermarkets in the Osaka area have shut off some overhead lights and freezer lighting. Power is being diverted from western Japan, where Osaka is located, to the north to cover shortages there.
Shinkansen (bullet train) service is also expected to be interrupted for lack of power. A shortened service schedule is to be announced on Monday. Airports in the Kanto area are expected to operate normally on backup power sources.
It will take weeks, if not months, to assess the damage caused to Japan’s fishing and seafood industries. Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake struck about 80 miles east of Sendai, roughly 240 miles northeast of Tokyo. The world’s fifth largest earthquake since 1900 unleashed a 23-foot tsunami that washed out fishing ports in the country’s northern region. Thousands of people were killed.
