Record power consumption


Power consumption in Japan reached a record of nearly 3.42 billion kilowatts on Tuesday as soaring temperatures prompted residents to switch on air conditioners.

The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan announced that the power usage for the 10 power companies the federation represents reached 3,419,917,000 kilowatts, breaking the previous record set in 2001 of 3,392,200,000 kilowatts.

As Leon, our web guru over at Alishan Organic Center pointed out to me today, the heat wave during the past 10 days couldn't have come at a worse time, as 7 nuclear reactors in Niigata prefecture are closed because of earthquake damage.

The graph shows how power companies deal with power surges during the day. Basically, more oil is used during peak hours starting around 9:00 AM. If Japan introduced daylight saving time, energy consumption could be drastically reduced.

(Source: Nuketext, a NGO that is critical of the information provided in schools about nuclear power in Japan)

Comments

Pandabonium said…
I never understood daylight saving time. Why can't we all just adjust what time we do business? Why do we have to mess with the clock?

And perhaps (I'm feeling contrarian today, can't you tell?) it was a good thing that the heat wave came at this time - Wake up call!
10:37 pm, August 24, 2007
Martin J Frid said…
The way it works in Sweden is that people just agree: OK, from today, we all wake up one hour earlier. On a certain day, we set the clocks one hour earlier in order to do that. It works.

OK, it is "messing with the clock", but isn't the clock already messing with us?

I agree about the heat wave, it made climate change VERY real. SO, how many degrees higher are you ok with?
11:50 pm, August 24, 2007
Pandabonium said…
I'm "done" already - well done.
3:13 pm, August 25, 2007
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