Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Q&As

• Power supply and demand issues

(Abridged)

REPORTER: In your press conference this morning you used the term "planned power saving." To date, with regard to power supply and demand issues a variety of measures have been implemented such as planned power outages, electricity usage restriction orders and independent requests by power utility companies to customers to conserve power. Could you tell us what image you have in mind when you refer to "planned power saving"?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY FUJIMURA: I referred to power saving in a planned and systematic manner. Last year and to date this has included power companies concluding supply and demand coordination contracts with commercial scale utility customers who consume in excess of 500kW of electricity. In this way menus are being compiled as a means of promoting a shift in peak power usage times, particularly for commercial scale utility customers who consume in excess of 500kW of electricity. A concrete example of such a contract is the user agreeing to halt facilities at a given time on a regular basis more than a week, thereby reducing electricity consumption, in return for reductions in electricity tariffs. My reference the previous day to "planned power saving" therefore pointed to the new creation of such plans to create various menus for users, with new contracts being drawn up with users to coordinate reductions in power usage.