Challenges to the Grid Here
Leana Mitnick has a master’s degree from Waseda University in International Political Economy and has done an internship with Chubu Electric Power, Japan’s third largest utility. She resides in Tokyo.
Every country and every region has different challenges related to natural disasters. Of course these can have a significant impact on utilities. In the United States, depending on the region, blackouts can take place even due to small storms. But in Japan where I live now, blackouts are an extremely rare occurrence.
While earthquakes and tsunami come to mind as the most common natural disasters in Japan, typhoons — the same as a hurricane — are an even more common experience here. Usually, typhoon season is in September. But this year due to hotter temperatures, it occurred in October. So far, as of early November there have been twenty-three typhoons that have reached Japan this year. Two of these typhoons caused major damage, Typhoon Faxai and Typhoon Hagibis.
When a typhoon hits Japan, it brings high speed winds and torrential rain. Normally this would cause huge damage to the electricity supply. But in most cases, because of the normality of typhoons, electricity is incredibly reliable.
A large percentage of utility poles in Japan are either made of concrete or are underground, not only to withstand typhoons, but of course earthquakes. Having lived in Tokyo for three years, I have not experienced even one blackout for any amount of time.