Japan’s economy minister warned that the country needs to remain vigilant to prevent electricity shortages this summer due to its reliance on older power plants that have a higher risk of sudden outages.
“We can’t rule out temporary squeezes on power ahead,” Ken Saito said during a regular news conference Friday. “The situation is such that we need to remain on high alert.”
Tokyo has secured enough fuel to deal with expected surges in power demand as temperatures rise, Saito said, reiterating that there was no need to request companies and households to conserve energy.
But he asked that people not waste electricity and that they turn off the lights in empty rooms.
Thermal power facilities that were temporarily shut down for maintenance earlier this year are expected to come online by the end of this month, while equipment failures at other facilities are expected to be fixed earlier than previously planned, the economy minister said.
Separately, Saito said government and company officials will discuss concrete measures on Tuesday to deal with growing jet fuel shortages as inbound flights increase. Measures will include ways to better monitor demand and secure fuel supply, he said.