Key Point of President's Regular Press Conference

May 2019 Regular Press Conference : President Katsuno's Message

May 28, 2019
Chubu Electric Power Co.,Inc.

I will be discussing the following matters today:
- Initiatives for emergency preparedness
- Power supply and demand outlook for this summer

Initiatives for emergency preparedness

First of all, I would like to report the status of our initiatives for emergency preparedness.
The “Verification Committee” has been set up to examine and reflect on extended power outage and poor delivery of information reported at the time of Typhoons No.21 and No.24 last year. The Committee has drawn up and implemented various measures.
They include measures that could only become effective when embraced by our customers. As Japan ushers in the rainy season and the season of typhoons, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our initiatives for emergency preparedness.
Based on the results of interviews and surveys on customers, local governments and our sales offices involved in post-emergency restoration, the Verification Committee has examined 15 tasks from the perspectives of “establishing a mechanism for facility restoration,” “disseminating information to customers” and “sharing information with and collaborating with local governments, etc.”
With regard to the first perspective of “establishing a mechanism for facility restoration,” it is important to have a system in place for swiftly gathering and sharing information from affected sites in order to ensure early restoration of power outage and deliver appropriate information swiftly to customers.
To “speed up the initial response,” we are improving the accuracy of the typhoon damage estimation system by July while also building a collaboration mechanism with other electric utilities to send and accept support personnel at the time of emergency so as to improve how we secure and allocate personnel.
To “improve the management of restoration processes,” information on the status of emergency damage and restoration, previously managed with computers at individual business sites, has been incorporated into a company-wide system to enable efficient data management and real-time information sharing with relevant company departments.
In August, mobile terminals will be introduced for real-time sharing of images depicting the extent of damage between affected sites and our sales offices. This will boost efficiency and response speed, thereby facilitating a quick formulation of a service restoration policy.
As for the perspective of “disseminating information to customers”…
Reflecting on poor customer communication on power outage status and estimated time of service restoration, we are adopting more communication tools to enhance our information delivery.
As a new communication tool, we have released a free smartphone app that allows customers to check power outage information and other details on their smartphones. Outage information and estimated time of service restoration are pushed to relevant customers’ devices based on their registered address and subscribed service.
As a way of handling customer queries, the new smartphone app has a Chat function to complement the conventional approach of accepting telephone inquiries. Furthermore, collaboration arrangements with call centers of other electric utilities will enable temporary increase in operators. These enhancements to our functions and mechanisms make it possible to handle queries from as many customers as possible.
The power outage information website has been added with a function for showing outage areas on a map and more detailed information about the progress of restoration work in our effort to “visualize” the status of service restoration.
As for the task of delivering information to non-Japanese customers, we have added power outage information and cautions on what to do in power outages on our English-language website. Preparation has been also completed to deliver such information on social media, including Twitter and Facebook.
In the final perspective of “sharing information with and collaborating with local governments, etc”…
Collaboration with local governments in emergency includes distributing information to local residents and reopening roads that have become blocked with mudslides or fallen trees. These are important tasks from the perspective of early service restoration.
For this reason, we have provided information about our latest initiatives to all local governments in the Chubu region. We have reinforcing collaboration with them through re-confirming contact details for emergency communication and consulting on the use of emergency radio services for information delivery.
To counter difficulties in accessing restoration sites due to fallen trees, etc., we held discussions with local governments about systematic tree felling, while also strengthening partnerships with the Chubu Regional Development Bureau and Central Nippon Expressway Company for assistance in reopening blocked roads and facilitating access of emergency vehicles.
While various measures are being introduced, what’s most important is to implement them smoothly, and ensure continuous preparedness. To this end, training our personnel is crucial.
We have held an annual emergency restoration drill each year, mainly involving the power distribution department. This year, in view of these latest measures, a drill involving other electric utilities and non-distribution departments will be held for two days on June 17 and 18 at the Okazaki Branch’s Toyohashi sales office.
Through the drill, we strive to boost the practical effectiveness of our measures to achieve early service restoration and swift distribution of appropriate information at the time of emergency.
With the company split scheduled for April next year, we are evolving into a different form of corporation. Yet, there is absolutely no change to our mission of delivering electricity safely, affordably and stably.
Even after the split, I will be leading the charge in implementing these emergency measures, assuring high quality of our electricity service and reinforcing resilience so as to continue to uphold our highest value of “supply stability.”

Power supply and demand outlook for this summer

Continuing on, let me now talk about the outlook of the power supply and demand in the Chubu region for this summer.
With regard to the outlook of the power supply and demand in the Chubu region for this summer, the maximum electricity demand for July and August (up to three-day average) is estimated to be 24.88 million kW. We expect to be able to achieve supply stability again this summer.
While securing supply capacity, we have also defined the month of June each year as the “Maintenance Reinforcement Month,” conducting a series of facility inspections on everything from power stations to transmission and distribution lines in preparation for increased power demand in summer.
JERA, in particular, is heading into its first summer since taking over the thermal power generation business. We have strengthened collaboration with the company, asking them to carry out facility inspections and re-confirming its emergency communication structure as well as a communication structure in normal times.
The Chuden Group will band together with renewed awareness in implementing the latest measures to ensure stable power supply to customers again this summer.
At the same time, while we cannot make a specific request for saving electricity this summer, we appreciate continued efforts to save electricity and conserve energy from the perspective of making efficient energy use and mitigating CO₂ emissions.
For information on specific examples, please go to our company website as well as our “Kateene” website. Thank you very much.
This ends my presentation.

Back to list