The government will not issue binding electricity-saving orders for areas served by Kansai Electric Power Co., whose capacity to meet peak demand this summer is precarious now that the nation's nuclear plants are all shut down, because other utilities will probably be able to provide Kepco with extra power, sources said Thursday.
Still, to prevent blackouts, the government at a ministerial meeting Friday morning will ask households and businesses served by seven utilities, including Kepco, to voluntarily curb power use this summer by setting numerical reduction targets, the sources said.
The move comes as all of the nation's 50 usable commercial nuclear reactors are now shut down amid heightened public safety fears due to the triple-meltdown crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 power plant. Before the crisis, which prompted the government to order all reactors to pass disaster-resistance stress tests, atomic power accounted for some 30 percent of the nation's electricity.