<article><p class="lead">A 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit northeast Japan on 13 February, with nearly 10GW of thermal power generation capacity forced to shut down. This caused tight electricity supplies, especially in the Tohoku area, although blackouts triggered just after the earthquake have already been resolved. </p><p>The earthquake, with the epicentre located offshore Fukushima prefecture, led to the shutdown of 9,517MW of thermal power capacity, including 6,823MW of coal-fired and 2,694MW of gas-fired capacity. A total of 7,759MW, or 81.5pc, remained closed, with only 1,758MW brought back on line yesterday. </p><p>The current closure of coal-fired units includes Jera's 600MW Hirono No.5 and No.6 and 650MW Hitachinaka Kyodo No.1, Tohoku Electric Power's 1,000MW Haramachi No.1 and No.2, Soma Kyodo Power's 1,000MW Shinchi No.1 and No.2, Nippon Paper's 149MW Ishinomaki Hibarino and Soma Energy Park's 112MW units. The Hirono No.6 unit is expected to resume operations today, followed by the No.5 unit tomorrow.</p><p>Gas-fired capacity that remains off line includes Tohoku Electric's 468MW Sendai and Fukushima Gas Power's 590MW No.1 and No.2 units. </p><p>The unexpected shutdown of thermal power units, which temporarily had left around 880,000 households in Tohoku and Kanto areas without electricity, triggered power shortages, especially in Tohoku. Japanese power agency the organisation for cross-regional co-ordination of transmission operators yesterday instructed utilities in other areas to supply electricity to Tohoku to avoid any repeat blackout. </p><p>Tohoku Electric, which has lost more coal-fired capacity than gas-fired capacity, is expected to increase output at its unaffected gas-fired power units to meet power demand from its customers. The company is likely to buy extra spot LNG cargoes or swap cargoes with other utilities, a market participant said. </p><p>Tohoku Electric's LNG and coal import operations are unaffected by the earthquake. But the Soma LNG terminal operated by Japanese upstream firm Japex, which supplies regasified LNG to Fukushima Gas Power, has been closed following the earthquake for safety checks. It is still unclear when the terminal will resume operations. </p><p>The earthquake occurred 10 years after a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown hit the nearby area in March 2011. There were no fatalities from the latest earthquake with 152 injuries reported as of yesterday. </p><p>Tohoku Electric said there were no leak of radioactive material from reactors at its Onagawa and Higashi Dori nuclear plants, which were closed in the wake of the 2011 disaster. Tokyo Electric Power also confirmed no radiation leaks at its scrapped Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants. </p><p>The earthquake helped boost wholesale electricity prices in east Japan's three areas, where the grid runs at 50 hertz (Hz). System-wide prices for day-ahead contracts on the Japan electric power exchange averaged ¥14.83/kWh ($142.80/MWh) in Hokkaido, Tohoku and Tokyo on 14 February, more than double the previous day's ¥5.62/kWh. But prices in the east Japan areas dropped to ¥8.08/kWh today, although this was still higher than an average of ¥6.52/kWh in the six west Japan areas that run at 60Hz. </p><p class="bylines">By Motoko Hasegawa</p></article>
