Japan Kyushu Electric's power sources by type

TOKYO: Japan's Kyushu Electric Power Co has been working its fossil fuel-fired power plants harder as the southwestern Japan-based utility tries to avoid rolling blackouts this summer at a time of low utilisation of nuclear plants.

After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years at Tokyo Electric's Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan, several utilities including Kyushu have kept reactors offline after they were shut for routine maintenance, due to public concerns about safety.

Japan is operating only 13 of the 54 reactors it had available before the quake.

Copyright Reuters, 2011