Tokyo Electric, Tohoku to raise power sharing capacity

TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) will raise the amount of surplus power it can give to quake-hit Tohoku Electric Power Co to more than 3,000 megawatts as early as this month, the Nikkei business daily said on Wednesday.

Tohoku Electric, meanwhile, will double the capacity of power it can supply to Tokyo Electric to around 5,000 MW by next summer to avert rolling blackouts, the report added, without citing sources.

A Tohoku Electric spokesman said the company would give a briefing on the matter in the afternoon, though he declined to comment further. Tokyo Electric did not immediately comment.

The crisis at Tokyo Electric's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has heightened public worries about nuclear safety, and no nuclear reactors have been authorised to restart since the March earthquake, raising the prospect of dire power shortages next summer.

After losing some 1,000 megawatts of hydropower from heavy rains in late July, Tohoku Electric barely managed to secure stable power supplies this summer, with assurances from Tepco that it will provide up to 2,060 MW of power supplies if necessary.

The government's National Policy Unit in July projected Tohoku Electric's power shortfall to worsen to 1,030 MW, or 7.3 percent, from 980 MW, or 6.6 percent, this summer, which could boost the need for power assistance from Tepco.

Copyright Reuters, 2011