Japan government sees no rolling blackouts in Hokkaido despite power shortage

[TOKYO] Japanese trade minister Hiroshige Seko said the government has no plans for rolling blackouts in Hokkaido on Monday and Tuesday despite the continued closure of a fossil fuel-fired power plant that supplies about half the island's power.

The northern Japanese island has been suffering power shortages since a powerful earthquake last Thursday that killed at least nine people.

Seko has called on power suppliers and the island's 5.3 million residents to save power by about 20 per cent during the business hours on weekdays. Power supplies had been restored to nearly all the 2.95 million customers in the island after an island-wide blackout, he said late on Sunday.

Japanese oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co said it resumed lorry product shipments at its 150,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Hokkaido refinery in northern Japan on Saturday. Oil refining operations have stayed shut.

REUTERS