EDITORIAL: Electricity shortages are a given, but do we need rolling blackouts?

Over the past week, the Kanto region centered around Tokyo has been roiled by rolling blackouts.

The power outages, imposed by the region's power utilities, have delivered an additional blow to people's daily lives and the nation's economy following the epic earthquake in northeastern Japan on March 11 and the nuclear disaster it triggered.

Pondering this problem with a cool head, we believe there is a way to prevent the implementation of power cuts even with the current power outage.

This can be accomplished by taking all measures possible to save electricity, much as the nation did when controls on consumption were imposed during the first oil crisis. This was done under provisions of article 27 of the electricity business law.

The power use cap based on the law would require both households and businesses not only to control their overall power consumption but also to curb their use of electricity during the peak demand hours.

This approach would make deliberate power supply cuts unnecessary.

This is, so to speak, planned power conservation based on efforts made by every segment of society at the government's initiative.

Forced power conservation would cause less damage to households and businesses than blackouts.

The government should act swiftly and embark on such an energy-saving program after weighing the opinions of the business community and a wide range of consumers.

The continuing power outages themselves are detrimental to people's lives and economic activities. In addition, the haphazard way power cuts are implemented and frequent changes in the plans are causing confusion and having a serious effect on public transportation services, hospitals, schools and other public facilities.

For example, at an intersection where the traffic signals were out, a fatal accident took place. Many information-technology companies are reportedly gearing up to relocate their operations out of the Kanto region.

As long as there is a power shortage, electricity consumption must be curtailed.

Forced power conservation, which leaves room for consumers to decide which items to turn, would be less damaging. We believe that would be a wiser way to trim consumption.

Companies could, for instance, reduce the number of elevators in service and halt some of their production lines. They could also shorten their hours of operation so employees can leave early.

At home, people should have supper and go to bed early. Companies could also shift part of their operations to Saturdays and Sundays when electricity demand is lower. Another effective step would be making the spring school holidays longer.

A combination of various efforts would lead to a significant savings of electricity.

The electricity business law allows the government to impose limits on power usage. When the provision was invoked during the first oil crisis in 1974, companies of a certain size or larger were forced to slash their total power consumption by 15 percent. Neon and other lighting was cut as well, of course.

This time, the affected region is facing power shortages of up to 10 million kilowatts. That means greater efforts for power conservation would have to be made by everybody in the region for a longer time than during the oil crunch.

Bureaucrats in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, who are against this idea, say there can be no guarantee of effective enforcement.

This is a crucial challenge that demands strong leadership from Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) issued an emergency statement calling for replacing the current planned power cuts with a program to control overall electricity consumption.

In fact, power savings already allow the utilities to forgo planned power cuts frequently.

Policymakers should place greater faith on the ingenuity and commitment of consumers.

If maximum possible efforts for electricity conservation turn out to be insufficient to compensate for the shortage, minimum power cuts could fill the balance.

A policy designed to make people more conscious of the need to save electricity would do a lot to help the nation overcome the crisis.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 20