Honda's Weekday Shutdowns Save Power

Honda Motor Co., one of Japan's top car manufacturers, plans to shut down operations for two weekdays a week at 16 factories and research centers in the service areas of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), a step intended to deal with the power shortages anticipated in the summer of 2003.

After revelations of misconduct by TEPCO, including cover-ups and data falsification concerning inspections and repairs at its nuclear power plants in the summer of 2002, operations at all 17 of its nuclear plants were halted for a thorough safety check. Two plants have since been restarted, but operations of the other 15 remained suspended as the summer of 2003 began. Besides trying to restart the plants as quickly as possible, the company is running awareness campaign on energy-saving, with the hopes that they will curb demand for electricity during the peak demand in summer.

Honda decided to stop operations on two weekdays during the peak demand season, after considering impacts on production schedules and workloads. The two-day shutdowns could save about 92,000 kilowatts, equivalent to the energy consumed by 30,000 households.

Honda plans to conduct additional energy saving measures, including reduction in lighting in its buildings and reducing the use of air conditioning. The estimated amount of energy saved by these measures is 10,000 kilowatts, equivalent to the consumption of 3,300 households.



Posted: 2003/08/05 08:39:50 AM
Japanese version