Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the reason the government is planning to ease power restrictions this summer is partly that major companies from steel and other industries intend to sell Tokyo Electric Power Co surplus power from their own generators.

The companies' in house generators have traditionally irked critics because they are mainly thermal and emit large quantities of carbon dioxide, running counter to efforts to prevent global warming. However, the generators are attracting much attention as an effective means of overcoming anticipated serious power shortages this summer.

In house generators are often used by large lot energy consumers such as steelmakers and other manufacturers of raw materials. Steel mills have relatively large generators. By using gases discharged from blast furnaces and coke ovens as fuel, they are capable of generating from hundreds of thousands up to 1 million kilowatts of power.

Nippon Steel Corporation and TEPCO jointly own a thermal power plant capable of generating 1 million kilowatts in the steelmaker's mill in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture. Before the Great East Japan Earthquake, the companies evenly shared output from the thermal power plant.

Since the quake, however, the plant has been working at full capacity and the steel mill has increased the amount of power it supplies to TEPCO. It has also beefed up its energy saving efforts.

Mr Eiji Hayashida chairman of the Japan Iron & Steel Federation and also president of JFE Steel Corporation emphasized that all steelmakers will cooperate to provide the power needed. He said that "If member companies have surplus power from their own generators, I'll see that they fully cooperate."

Companies in other sectors, such as chemical and food manufacturers, also plan to supply TEPCO with electricity from their own generators. They include Sumitomo Metal Industries Limited, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Oji Paper Co, IHI Corporation, Mori Building Co, Ajinomoto Co and Kirin Brewery Co.

The sale of electricity to electric power companies by other firms using their own generators has spread since the 1990s, when the government liberalized the industry. Companies selling electricity can also benefit from higher earnings if they sell more power to TEPCO. However, if steelmakers operate their furnaces at full capacity, they will end up with surplus steel.

Demand for steel has been sluggish in the wake of the March 11th 2011 disaster, as automakers, the steelmakers' main clients, have not been able to fully resume production due to a shortage of parts.

(Sourced from www.yomiuri.co.jp)