TOKYO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - After an earthquake knocked out power to 5.3 million people this week, Hokkaido Electric expects to restore service to most of them by the end of Friday, but experts say the island-wide outage highlights fundamental flaws in Japan's power grid.

The blackout that hit Japan's northern island of Hokkaido after early Thursday's quake was the nation's worst in seven years, but it would have been less extensive if the utility was not so reliant on one large power station, had spread its plants more widely, and could transfer power more easily from other areas, specialists and energy executives said.

In the aftermath of Japan's March 2011 disaster, when an earthquake and tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns and widespread power outages, the government mandated a boost in renewable energy supplies, opened up a roughly $70 billion retail electricity market to competition and created a grid oversight company to address these issues.

But Hokkaido and other Japanese utilities have been slow to beef up networks and make them more resilient in a country that regularly experiences natural disasters, the specialists said.

"The crisis is primarily the result of over-reliance on a large coal plant in a centralized generation paradigm," said Andrew DeWit, a professor of energy policy at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.

"That is odd and dangerous, considering the multiplicity of hazards Japan confronts and has experienced in recent years."

While not as many people were affected by this week's outage as after the March 2011 quake and tsunami, it was the first time a regional utility in Japan lost its full network, according to the country's Federation of Electric Power Companies.

Hokkaido Electric Power had restored power to a little more than half of the island's 2.95 million households by Friday afternoon after receiving supplies from nearby Honshu and rebooting some of its generating units.

The utility's Tomato-Atsuma coal station, which normally supplies about half the island's electricity, remained shut after sustaining damage in the quake. It may take a week to restore power fully to Hokkaido.

Hokkaido Electric aims to have power restored to about 80 percent of the island's households by the end of Friday, according to Japan industry minister Hiroshige Seko.

The abrupt halt in supplies from Tomato-Atsuma, which has three coal-fired generators, caused such a huge imbalance in supply and demand that other power plants on Hokkaido were tripped and shut down.

"Adjusting supply and demand is very difficult. Hokkaido's power grid is small and the share of Tomato-Atsuma is large, so it must have been much a more difficult a situation than after the big earthquake that struck eastern Japan," said Tsutomu Oyama, professor of electrical engineering at Yokohama National University.

With its only nuclear plant shut pending approval to restart under new safety guidelines imposed since the Fukushima meltdowns of 2011, Hokkaido Electric has been investing in a new gas-fired station and expanding the capacity of its connection to Honshu. Cost cuts have slowed the process.

It plans to start operations of the gas-fired unit next month and complete a 50 percent expansion in capacity on the Hokkaido-Honshu connection by March next year, a Hokkaido Electric spokesman told Reuters. Those transmission lines currently can supply only about 600 megawatts of power.

Asked if there were lessons from 2011 that could have been applied to help mitigate the current situation, the spokesman said the utility had conducted drills for scenarios including the shutdown of all three units at Tomato-Atsuma but did not provide details.

"It is difficult to answer this question because the 2011 quake and yesterday's quake are different situations," he said. </s> TOKYO (Reuters) - After an earthquake knocked out power to 5.3 million people this week, Hokkaido Electric expects to restore service to most of them by the end of Friday, but experts say the island-wide outage highlights fundamental flaws in Japan’s power grid.

Evacuees are seen at a gymnasium of elementary school, acting as an evacuation shelter, during blackout after an earthquake hit the area in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Kyodo/via REUTERS

Graphic: Earthquake in Hokkaido - tmsnrt.rs/2oJz6zd

The blackout that hit Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido after early Thursday’s quake was the nation’s worst in seven years, but it would have been less extensive if the utility was not so reliant on one large power station, had spread its plants more widely, and could transfer power more easily from other areas, specialists and energy executives said.

In the aftermath of Japan’s March 2011 disaster, when an earthquake and tsunami caused nuclear meltdowns and widespread power outages, the government mandated a boost in renewable energy supplies, opened up a roughly $70 billion retail electricity market to competition and created a grid oversight company to address these issues. But Hokkaido and other Japanese utilities have been slow to beef up networks and make them more resilient in a country that regularly experiences natural disasters, the specialists said.

“The crisis is primarily the result of over-reliance on a large coal plant in a centralized generation paradigm,” said Andrew DeWit, a professor of energy policy at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.

“That is odd and dangerous, considering the multiplicity of hazards Japan confronts and has experienced in recent years.”

While not as many people were affected by this week’s outage as after the March 2011 quake and tsunami, it was the first time a regional utility in Japan lost its full network, according to the country’s Federation of Electric Power Companies.

Hokkaido Electric Power had restored power to a little more than half of the island’s 2.95 million households by Friday afternoon after receiving supplies from nearby Honshu and rebooting some of its generating units.

The utility’s Tomato-Atsuma coal station, which normally supplies about half the island’s electricity, remained shut after sustaining damage in the quake. It may take a week to restore power fully to Hokkaido.

Hokkaido Electric aims to have power restored to about 80 percent of the island’s households by the end of Friday, according to Japan industry minister Hiroshige Seko.

The abrupt halt in supplies from Tomato-Atsuma, which has three coal-fired generators, caused such a huge imbalance in supply and demand that other power plants on Hokkaido were tripped and shut down.

“Adjusting supply and demand is very difficult. Hokkaido’s power grid is small and the share of Tomato-Atsuma is large, so it must have been much a more difficult a situation than after the big earthquake that struck eastern Japan,” said Tsutomu Oyama, professor of electrical engineering at Yokohama National University.

With its only nuclear plant shut pending approval to restart under new safety guidelines imposed since the Fukushima meltdowns of 2011, Hokkaido Electric has been investing in a new gas-fired station and expanding the capacity of its connection to Honshu. Cost cuts have slowed the process.

It plans to start operations of the gas-fired unit next month and complete a 50 percent expansion in capacity on the Hokkaido-Honshu connection by March next year, a Hokkaido Electric spokesman told Reuters. Those transmission lines currently can supply only about 600 megawatts of power.

Asked if there were lessons from 2011 that could have been applied to help mitigate the current situation, the spokesman said the utility had conducted drills for scenarios including the shutdown of all three units at Tomato-Atsuma but did not provide details.

“It is difficult to answer this question because the 2011 quake and yesterday’s quake are different situations,” he said. </s> TOKYO (AP) - The Latest on the powerful earthquake in northern Japan (all times local):

Japan’s nuclear regulator says external power has been restored at a nuclear power plant’s three reactors after a powerful quake on Hokkaido knocked out electricity across the northern island.

The three reactors at the Tomari plant had switched to emergency backup generators to keep spent fuel safely cooled. The Nuclear Regulation Authority says there’s no abnormality at the plant.

The restoration of power at the plant, however, won’t help restore electricity for the rest of Hokkaido as the reactors are offline for regular safety checks following the magnitude 6.7 quake.

The loss of external power briefly raised concerns because it brought back memories of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns that were triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami that destroyed power and key cooling systems.

The main railway company on the quake-hit northern Japanese island of Hokkaido says all trains have stopped due to power outage.

Hokkaido Railway Co. says high-speed bullet and all local trains on the island are halted. The company says it cannot update information on the social media due to the blackout.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido early Thursday morning, knocking out power to nearly 3 million households. The outage also affected subways, power plants and hospitals.

Trade, Economy and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko says damage at the main thermal power plant is delaying power restoration and that utility officials are rushing to get several other thermal and hydroelectric plants working to at least deliver some electricity within a day or two.

Japan’s economy minister says damage from a powerful earthquake at the main thermal plant has delayed the restoration of power on the main northernmost island of Hokkaido for more than a week.

Nearly 3 million households are without electricity across the island after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido early Thursday.

Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko initially instructed utility officials to restore power at the Tomato Atsuma thermal plant “within a few hours.” But Seko says the plan is now impossible due to damage.

Officials are trying to start up several other thermal and hydroelectric plants to get at least some power back on the island. Seko says the government is also arranging additional power supply from the mainland and sending power generating vehicles to hospitals.

This item corrects the spelling of the plant.

A Japanese government spokesman says two people have been confirmed dead after a powerful earthquake rocked the northern main island of Hokkaido.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the search was ongoing for those missing after the quake triggered dozens of landslides in the mountainous region near the epicenter. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake on Hokkaido early Thursday morning also knocked out power across the northern island.

Aerial footage showed slashes of brown earth on many heavily forested mountains, crushed homes and farm buildings and roads buried by avalanches of mud, logs and other debris.

The Japanese national broadcaster NHK is reporting that 125 people have been injured and about 20 are feared missing after a powerful quake triggered dozens of landslides in heavily forested mountains on the northern main island of Hokkaido.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido early Thursday morning. Power was knocked out across the island.

The government said airports and many roads on the island were closed following the quake.

Officials said that 25,000 troops and other personnel were being dispatched to the area to help with rescue operations.

Japan’s minister for the economy, trade and industry Hiroshige Seko told reporters that efforts are underway to try to restore power in Hokkaido.

Nearly 3 million households over a widespread area are without electricity after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido at 3:08 a.m. Thursday (18:08 GMT Wednesday) at the depth of 40 kilometers (24 miles).

Seko said the government plans to use power from the area’s four hydroelectric plants as all the area’s fossil fuel power plants aren’t working.

Places like hospitals will get priority, he said, noting he hoped to get power back “within a few hours.”

Power is still out at the area’s Tomari nuclear plant, but backup diesel generators have kicked in so the reactors’ fuel is continuing to be kept cool, according to the government nuclear authorities. The plant has also shut down.

A powerful earthquake hit wide areas on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido early Thursday, triggering landslides as well as causing the loss of power at nearly all of 3 million households and a nuclear power plant to go on a backup generator.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck southern Hokkaido at 3:08 a.m. Thursday (1808 GMT Wednesday) at the depth of 40 kilometers (24 miles), Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

The quake’s epicenter was east of the city of Tomakomai. It also struck Hokkaido’s prefectural capital of Sapporo, with a population of 1.9 million.

This story has been corrected to say the name of the thermal plant is Tomato Atsuma not Tomato Azuma. </s> The death toll from the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan's northern Hokkaido island on Thursday rose to 16, the Japanese prime minister confirmed on Friday, while over 40 percent of the power supply on the island is now restored.

"So far there are 16 (dead) people and many people injured, with 26 still missing," prime minister Shinzo Abe said at a press briefing after an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday.

Abe added that rescue efforts were underway in the affected areas and urged the population to exercise extreme caution in the coming hours, as rains are expected to cause more landslides.

Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko added during the press conference that 47 percent of Hokkaido's power supply was restored.

At 06.00 local time (21.00 GMT on Thursday), electricity had returned to 1.4 million households and other establishments, according to Seko.

The electricity production on the island amounted to 1.89 million kilowatts. It also received power from the main island of Honshu, after the government sought energy support from other electricity companies in the country to resolve the blackouts, especially in hospitals.

It is expected that with the resumption of operations in thermal and hydroelectric plants throughout Friday the capacity will rise to 3.12 million kilowatts, around 80 percent of the maximum production recorded a day before the earthquake. The electric company, therefore, urged people to save as much energy as possible.

The 6.7-magnitude earthquake on Thursday triggered an immediate shutdown of the main Tomato thermal power plant in Atsuma, which accounted for half of the electricity production on the island, and other power plants, leaving 2.95 million houses and buildings without electricity.

The power cut also affected transport services, which will resume their services in the coming hours.

The high-speed railway operator JR Hokkaido said it will resume operations around noon, while the New Chitose Airport, the largest in Sapporo, is scheduled to reopen later on Friday for incoming flights. </s> Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-10 17:59:29|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the powerful earthquake striking Japan's Hokkaido last week rose to 44 on Monday, the government said, with thousands still displaced as aftershocks continued to rumble and powers supply remained unstable.

According to the local police and prefectural officials, the body of a 77-year-old man who was previously unaccounted for was found on Monday morning in the town of Atsuma at the site of a deadly landslide.

Two other bodies were found at the same site on Sunday, officials reported. There are now no reports of individuals missing and the search operations have officially been called off.

Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told a press briefing Monday that around 40,000 Self-Defense Force (SDF) personnel, police, firefighters continued to work on removing debris and clean-up operations.

He also confirmed that there were no more missing residents.

The majority of the fatalities were in Atsuma, where massive landslides buried and crushed homes, leaving around 36 people dead, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday.

As of Monday morning, around 2,700 people remained in evacuation shelters, with around 70 buildings destroyed, and 8,000 homes were still without water supply, the Hokkaido prefectural government said.

Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi has called on the people and businesses of Hokkaido for their cooperation in using less power, as consumption must be reduced by 20 percent at peak-times to avoid blackouts in Japan's northernmost prefecture.

"It is extremely tough but if rolling blackouts or another power outage occurs, restoring lives and business activities to normal will be severely impacted," Takahashi was quoted as saying.

The electricity shortage could continue for up to a week according to Hokkaido Electric Power Co., as the Tomatoatsuma thermal power plant which was damaged by the quake and produces nearly 50 percent of Hokkaido's power, underwent repairs.

Hokkaido was rocked by an early morning 6.7-magnitude earthquake last Thursday.

Around 700 people have been injured as a result of the quake which was measured the maximum 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale.

This marked the first time a quake in Hokkaido has registered this intensity level since the seismic scale was revised in 1996, Japan's weather agency said. </s> At least four people were killed and 33 were missing after a powerful earthquake paralyzed Hokkaido on Thursday, but the death toll was likely to rise as rescuers searched houses buried by landslides.

The quake, the latest episode in a miserable summer of natural disasters in Japan, knocked out power to all of Hokkaido's 5.3 million residents.

Public broadcaster NHK said the death toll had doubled to four and that six people were found in cardiopulmonary arrest, a term commonly used in Japan before death is formally confirmed. Another 120 were injured after the 6.7-magnitude quake struck before dawn.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said 25,000 Self-Defense Force troops would be deployed for rescue operations.

Aerial footage showed dozens of landslides exposing barren hillsides near the town of Atsuma in southern Hokkaido, with mounds of reddish earth and toppled trees piled up at the edge of green fields. The collapsed remains of what appeared to be houses or barns were scattered about.

"It came in four big jerks - bang! bang! bang! bang!" one unidentified woman told NHK. "Before we knew it our house was bent and we couldn't open the door."

The entire island lost power for the first time since Hokkaido Electric Power Co was created in 1951 when the utility conducted an emergency shutdown of all its fossil fuel-fired power plants after the quake. It said almost 12 hours later power was restored to parts of Sapporo, Hokkaido's capital, and Asahikawa, its second-most populated city.

Hokkaido Electric restarted four hydropower units with a total capacity of 300 megawatts (MW) and will restart the 250-MW Sunagawa coal-fired plant later Thursday, Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said.

The company will also restart its 350-MW coal-fired Naie plant, oil-fired 700-MW Date plant and 700-MW oil-fired Shiriuchi plant from as early as Friday, Seko said.

The restoration of 2.9 gigwatts (GW) of power is expected to be possible by the end of Friday, including 600-MW of power coming across from the mainland, he said.

Peak power demand in Hokkaido, however, reaches 3.8 GW, so the restoration of all power across the island should take at least another week, Seko said.

All trains across the island, which is about the size of Austria, were also halted.

The government said there was damage to Hokkaido Electric's Tomato-Atsuma plant, which supplies half the electricity to the island's 2.95 million households. It could take a week to restore power fully to all residents, Seko said.

Television footage from the southeastern part of Sapporo showed crumbled roads and mud flowing onto a main street. Police directed traffic because signal lights were out while drink-vending machines, ubiquitous in Japan, and most ATMs were not working.

"Without electricity, there's nothing I can do except to write prescriptions," a doctor in Abira, the town next to Atsuma, told NHK.

The quake hit at 3:08 a.m. at a depth of 40 km, with its epicenter about 65 km southeast of Sapporo, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). It registered a strong 6 on Japan's 7-point quake scale.

It struck near Hokkaido's main airport, New Chitose Airport, which will remain closed for at least Thursday. Roof tiles and water could be seen on the terminal floors.

Chitose airport is a major gateway to the island, known for its mountains, lakes and abundant farmland and seafood. More than 200 flights and 40,000 passengers would be affected, Kyodo News agency said.

The closure comes just days after Kansai Airport, another major regional hub, in western Japan, was shut by Typhoon Jebi. The airport's operator said it would resume some domestic flights on Friday.

The Tomari nuclear power plantn, which has been shut since a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, suffered a power outage but officials said it was cooling its spent nuclear fuel safely.

Farming, tourism and other services are big economic drivers on Hokkaido, which accounts for just 3.6 percent of Japan's GDP, but there is some industry. Kirin Brewery and Sapporo Breweries both said factories were shut by the power outage.

A fire that broke out at a Mitsubishi Steel Mfg Co plant in the city of Muroran after the quake was extinguished with no injuries.

A series of smaller shocks, including one with a magnitude of 5.4, followed the initial quake, the JMA said. Residents were warned to take precautions for potential major aftershocks in coming days. </s> TOKYO (Reuters) - Power had been restored to almost all customers in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido by early Saturday, two days after an earthquake caused an island-wide blackout and killed at least 21 people.

But the impact of Thursday’s 6.7 magnitude quake was set to rumble on with Toyota Motor planning to halt operations at 16 of 18 domestic full-assembly plants due to a parts factory shutdown.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the confirmed death toll was 21, with six people in cardiopulmonary arrest - a term used in Japan to describe a victim’s condition before death is officially confirmed - and 13 people were missing.

The earthquake triggered landslides that buried houses and paralysed Hokkaido with widespread power and transport cuts, the latest natural disaster to hit Japan after typhoons, floods and deadly heat waves in the past two months.

Toyota Motor said it would suspend work at the 16 plants on Monday due to the shutdown of its transmission factory in Tomakomai in Hokkaido following the quake.

The company said it would decide later on whether to extend the shutdowns beyond Monday.

Suga called on businesses and Hokkaido’s 5.3 million residents to save power by about 10 percent from Monday, when usage rises, and said the government would likely resort to rolling blackouts if demand threatened to exceed supply capacity.

That would be the first use of rolling blackouts in Japan to deal with power shortages since March 2011, when a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Hokkaido Electric said power supplies had been restored island-wide to 2.93 million customers by early Saturday, leaving only 20,000 customers without electricity.

The utility will have supplies of up to 3.6 GW available by the end of Saturday, the trade ministry said, which is still short of pre-quake peak demand of 3.8 GW.

Japanese refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co is preparing to resume lorry product shipments at its 150,000 barrels-per-day Hokkaido refinery, a company official said.

Refining operations have been halted since Thursday. </s> TOKYO, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The death toll from a powerful earthquake in northern Japan last week rose to 44, with 660 injured, the government said on Monday, as electricity supply remained short and top automaker Toyota suspended work at most of its assembly plants.

The pre-dawn, 6.7-magnitude quake on Thursday temporarily paralysed the island of Hokkaido, cutting off access by air and train and knocking out power to an island the size of Austria.

About 2,500 people remain in evacuation centres, according to Fire and Disaster Management Agency, after landslides buried houses and rain at the weekend loosened soil in a further threat to unstable houses.

Yoshihide Suga, the top government spokesman, said a team of about 40,000 Self-Defense Force troops, police, firefighters and others were working on clearing debris and other clean-up operations. There were no more missing residents, he said.

Power supply has been restored to nearly all customers in Hokkaido but trade minister Hiroshige Seko called on the island's businesses and 5.3 million residents to use about 20 percent less energy to prevent further blackouts.

"It's very important now for all residents, businesses, the government, and electricity suppliers to work together towards this goal of 20 percent energy-saving," Seko told a news conference late on Sunday.

The government has no plans for rolling blackouts on Monday and Tuesday despite the continued closure of a fossil fuel-fired power plant that supplies about half the island's power, he said.

With electricity restored, Toyota Motor Corp said on Monday its parts factory in Tomakomai, Hokkaido, which builds transmissions and other components, was preparing to resume production some time during the night shift starting at 8:30 p.m. (1130 GMT).

However, the fallout has already spread beyond the island, with Toyota suspending assembly at 16 of its 18 domestic car assembly plants on Monday to assess its parts inventory. It will decide in the next few hours whether to resume work on Tuesday, the automaker said. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, Maki Shiraki, Osamu Tsukimori Writing by Chang-Ran Kim Editing by Paul Tait) </s> * Fukushima disaster came after tsunami knocked out back-up power

* Restoring full power to island may take a week - minister (Recasts throughout, adds comment)

TOKYO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Power was restored to a nuclear energy plant in Hokkaido, northern Japan on Thursday after a strong earthquake left it relying on emergency generators for 10 nervous hours, but it may be a week before lights are back on all over the major island.

Triggering a blackout just after 3 a.m. local time, the magnitude 6.7 quake left at least seven people dead, more than 100 injured and dozens missing on Hokkaido, an island of about 5.3 million people whose capital is Sapporo. A major coal-fired power station was also damaged in the temblor that shut down the grid.

The situation at utility Hokkaido Electric Power’s three-reactor Tomari nuclear plant provided an uncomfortable, if comparatively brief, echo of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Reactors there melted down after a massive tsunami knocked out back-up generators, designed to maintain power to cool reactors in emergencies.

Though Tomari was shut down after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, it needs electricity to keep fuel rods cool, and had to rely on back-up diesel generators that kicked in after the quake until power was restored to all three reactors by 1 p.m. local time.

Hokkaido Electric is now scrambling to get power restored to households, factories and other customers, even as rescuers bring in heavy machinery and digging equipment to search for survivors that may be trapped in stricken buildings.

In another echo of the 2011 disaster, Hokkaido’s situation was compounded by difficulties in receiving supplies from neighbouring regions that remain dominated by separate utilities with their own grids.

A Hokkaido Electric spokesman said the utility was not receiving any supplies from the island of Honshu to the south - home to Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya - despite there being a 600 megawatt connection for transferring power from the coast of Japan’s main island.

“Nationwide, they have been trying to bolster power systems by linking these fairly Balkanized domains, but it’s not as easy as it sounds,” said Andrew DeWit, professor of energy policy at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. “It requires equipment like transformers that is quite expensive and tailor-made.”

Damage to transmission lines, transformers and other equipment from the quake is likely also delaying the restoration of power, DeWit said.

By early afternoon, Hokkaido Electric had restarted one 125 megawatt coal-fired unit at its Sunagawa station.

Its Tomato-Atsuma coal station, which normally supplies about half the island’s electricity, remained shut after sustaining damage in the quake.

The abrupt halt in supplies from Tomato-Atsuma caused such a huge imbalance in supply and demand that other power plants on Hokkaido had to be shut own, industry minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters in Tokyo. it may take a week to restore power fully to Hokkaido, he said.

Thursday’s blackout prompted the shutdown of Hokkaido’s New Chitose Airport, a popular gateway to the most northern of Japan’s main islands, the second major airport to be knocked out in the country in two days after a typhoon swamped the nation’s third-biggest.

A number of industrial plants and factories were also affected.

A fire that broke out at a steel production facility at Mitsubishi Steel Manufacturing’s joint venture with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp in Muroran, Hokkaido, was extinguished with little damage to the facilities, a company official said.

The plant will work towards resuming special steel production after power supply from Hokkaido Electric is restored, the official said. It usually takes about eight hours to resume production after the power supply has been secured, he said.

Meanwhile Idemitsu Kosan, Japan’s second-biggest refiner by sales, stopped all refining and product shipments at its 150,000 barrels per day Hokkaido refinery, the only one on the island, an official told Reuters.

Kirin Beer, part of giant drinks maker Kirin Holdings Co , said it closed its Chitose plant, which accounts for about 5 percent of its beer output, because of the power outage. There was no structural damage to the factory, it said.

Sapporo Holdings Ltd said it closed down its Hokkaido brewery because of the lack of power.
Energy specialists and executives say a power outage from the earthquake could have been lessened if Hokkaido Electric did not rely so exclusively on the Tomato-Atsuma coal plant. The company has restored electricity to just over half of its affected customers.