Concerns had originally been raised...
Japan's First Power Supply-Demand Alert, Calls for 22 Days of Power Saving in TEPCO's Service Area - Bloomberg
政府が初の電力需給ひっ迫警報、東電管内で22日の節電呼び掛け - Bloomberg
Originally, it was predicted that a power crunch was possible this winter, but the recent earthquake that shut down some of the power plants seems to have made it a reality.
If it gets even tighter, power-saving requests will be made with time and numerical figures.
さらに逼迫なら時間、数値示して節電要請も | カナロコ by 神奈川新聞 (kanaloco.jp)
Japan has long been called a declining developing country, and this would be a perfect example of how it is becoming a developing country. First of all, infrastructure-related issues will cease to function.
Although this is not expected to have an immediate impact since the country still has some for the time being, trust in grid power will gradually decrease.
It is more like Africanization, or North Korea, or Venezuela. If we can no longer invest in infrastructure, at some point we will no longer be able to supply electricity. However, this type of infrastructure development is not always well received by the public, and the longer it is put off, the more it will become irreversible.
In the end, it is better to speak of autonomous decentralization, but in the end, as in Africa, people will have to put up solar panels in their own areas and supply their own electricity.
In this way, people will be able to use their own micro-grids, including EVs, solar power and small wind power to generate electricity on a daily basis, charge their EVs when not in immediate use, and repeatedly take power from their EVs at night.
Especially when the grid power is not good, it will become common practice to use the EV as a storage battery at home instead of going out. Of course, if things get too bad, it may become common practice to have a storage battery in the house, and if it is not kept there, electricity may become unavailable at certain times, etc.
At the very least, businesses will be forced to install solar panels on their factories and other facilities so that they can operate even if the power goes out.
This may sound like a story from a developing country, but it could be Japan's situation in a few decades.
In any case, thermal power is not an option (how long will the old coal-fired power plants last? Even at the present time, they are becoming significantly obsolete. The power crisis will further progress when these plants begin to completely cease operation. In the meantime, there is talk of nuclear power plants being NG and, more recently, renewable energy also being NG, and regulations are being imposed on them. There is also the question of how much biomass and other local resources can be used.
The question is whether hydroelectricity can go any further.
Overall, we are back to the old days when it came to energy.
If there is no solution to this problem, a completely autonomous decentralized society will emerge in the future, one that basically does not rely on the grid and uses grid power as a backup.
Of course, it would be nice if it could work that way...
In any case, it is gradually becoming more and more difficult for the "national government" to take certain necessary actions, and we will have no choice but to move toward a self-responsible society in which individuals must do their best to cope with the situation.
We can only hope that the autonomous decentralized energy systems of individuals and businesses will somehow function properly, and that society will be able to manage even if the grid power is dying....
