Denki yoho

The electricity crunch that we were warned about earlier this year hasn’t come to pass yet.
Tepco managed to get enough of its reactors back online to cover the city’s power consumption, and their collective corporate prayer for a cool summer was certainly answered.
Oddly, though, this summer’s power consumption is nearly as high as last year.

[click for a larger version]
This graph shows power use from 1986 (Showa 60) to 2003 (Heisei 14), noting the peak date of power use and the kilowatt hours/10,000. Our current peak was on August 1st. It was higher than everything except last year’s all-time peak.
Maybe Tepco’s denki yoho (electricity forecast) backfired. Everyday between 11:30 and noon, every radio and TV station announces how much power is available and what the expected peak is. Every time I’ve checked, the peak has always been well within the available power. I suppose that might make people care less.
The denki yoho is online, too.
Today’s Forecast: http://www.tepco.co.jp/setsuden/corp-com/forecast/index-j.html
Today’s Graph: http://www.tepco.co.jp/setsuden/corp-com/forecast/demand-j.html