Powerful savings

JAPAN has been dreading a major energy shortage in the north-east, after a quarter of the region's power-generation capacity was damaged by the quake, tsunami and crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. But a summer of rolling blackouts may be avoided.

TEPCO, the Tokyo regional power company, has been able to bring online more power plants than it anticipated initially. Instead of an 8-gigawatt (8GW) shortfall, it now expects to suffer a shortage of only 3GW, as a story in this week's paper explains. Demand is estimated to peak at 55GW, which leaves room for basic energy-saving measures, like using less air-conditioning and lighting, to avert a power crunch with capacity to spare.

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