TEPCO suspends 2nd round of planned power cuts in Tokyo

Tokyo Electric Power Co. Ltd. ( TEPCO) said Monday it will suspend a second round of planned power outages in the greater Tokyo and surrounding areas today, as actual electricity shortages in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake were not as severe as initially estimated.

A TEPCO official told a news conference that the firm would decide whether to go ahead with the third, fourth and fifth rounds of power cuts after further assessing supply and demand.

The original plan announced by TEPCO was that there would be planned 3-hour power cuts at 5 predetermined time slots, in a rotating order, in Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures.

As many railway firms have either canceled or greatly reduced their services in the greater Tokyo area to conserve power, causing mayhem on Monday morning for the capital's millions of commuters, citizens were then left baffled as to why TEPCO opted to then suspend at least the first two-rounds of planned power outages.

The subsequent changes have thrown the nation's capital into a degree of confusion leading to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano blasting the firm for causing such confusion.

Prior to this, Prime Minister Naoto Kan called on the public to reduce electricity consumption to prevent a massive nation-wide power outage.

Kan said the public should stay home and to turn off as many electric appliances as possible, even if it is inconvenient for them to do so.

Source: Xinhua

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