6Y6M 4Y9M 日本の節電 Power saving in Japan

日本はペナンより暑い日が続いているようで、埼玉でも最高38度を超えている。ペナンはこの時期は比較的涼しいから、両親も避暑に来ればいいのに。

アラタカラ、今年の夏の一時帰国は見合わせることにした。たった一ヶ月なので、たいしたことは無いと思うが、子供の内部被爆は少ないほどよい。来年までにはかなり除染が進んでいると思われるからとりあえず今年は避けることにしよう。

「節電のため、エアコンをガンガン使えないのは、暑にさに弱い私には耐え難い」というのは建前で、やはり原発事故の影響は小さな子供を持つ親としては怖い。

ところで、政府は電気不足なので節電をと呼びかけている。そのおかげで、実家の父も夏風邪をひいた。夜寝る時にエアコンの温度を28度に設定して、扇風機回して寝ていたらしい。

両親のように混乱している人も多いかも。電気が一番使われる時間帯の昼間に節電しないと意味がないということをうちの両親はわかっていない。高齢者が情報を正確に理解できず体調を崩してしまう。高齢者や体の弱い人は「正式に」節電免除をアナウンスして欲しいぐらい。

実際のところ電気は足りているそうだ。発電所の稼働率は決して100％でないから、不足分の発電量は休止中の発電所を稼動させることで既に賄えている。電気が足りないことにして、国民に不快な思いをさせ、原発推進派を増やそうという作戦だろうという意見に同感。

In Japan, it's been so hot. In Saitama, the temperature keeps hitting 38C during day. On contrary, it's been quite comfortable this time a year in Penang. Hopefully my parents can come to stay for a couple of weeks to avoid the terrible summer.

We've decided not to go back to Japan this year. It'd be only for a month and I shouldn't be so worried but it's better for children to have as little radioactive materials possible. By next summer, decontamination will be proceeded, and it will probably be safe enough to to go back. So we will give it a miss this summer.

My official reason of why not going back is "I won't be able to stand the boiling Japanese summer if we can't use the air-conditioning round the clock because of the lack of energy" but to be honest, I'm more worried about the situation of Fukushima.

Japanese government have asked us to actively follow their power saving plans. Thanks for that, my dad has got a cold. When he sleeps at night, he sets the air-conditioning to 28C and uses a fan at the same time, which is not his usual way to tackle the summer - usually he sets the temperature much lower.

Probably lots of people get confused as my parents. It's only useful to try to save energy during the peek hours, which is at day time. Especially old people don't tend to get the point, like my parents, and get ill. This is not fair. I really hope the government officially announce that old and the sick don't need to follow their plans.

I've learnt recently, in fact, we have enough electric power being produced at the moment. Since power stations are not used up to 100% capacity at any time, the amount of Fukushima has been already covered by activating one of the unused plants. Some people believe the goverment try to make us believe we need nuclear power by making us experience unbearable summer. I agree!