By now you probably have heard about the cyclic power outage to prevent from overloading the electricity power system. But many I have spoken to have not had their power shut down even though they have been included in one of the groups.
One reason may be that people and companies are doing what they can to save energy. Like at the Shinagawa station where the escalators were closed down. People were referred to the elevator should they have difficulties taking the stairs.
It was a risk that the cyclic power outage was not going to be enough the the expected peak of energy consumption tonight. It was quite cold and a lot of heating relies on electricity. But either it was a major miscalculation or people helped out by saving power. I suspect the latter 🙂
Waking up today to the news that there will be 輪番åœé›» (rinban-teiden) or cyclic blackout/power outage. We are divided into 4 groups in Tokyo and each group will take turns in getting a controlled power outage as to prevent overloading the electric power system.
This is due, as I guess most know, to the problems with the Fukushima nuclear power plants. The power production has been significantly reduced to that. In addition, people are asked to reduce conserve power as much as possible.
Chie and I are lucky as we live in one of the few areas in Tokyo that is not part of on any of the rinban-teiden groups. This means no power outage for us.
And as I am writing this the building is shaking gently by another after-quake. Epicenter is closer to Tokyo but “only” 1 in magnitude [JMA] .
[Update] They seem to have changed the cyclic blackout scheme since the morning and we now have a fifth group. It is not clear if our area of Tokyo is included in any of the groups or not. I guess time will tell anyway.