SAPPORO -- Nearly all the households in Hokkaido suffered power failures on Thursday after a massive earthquake struck the prefecture.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co. ultimately suspended all four of its thermal power plants in Hokkaido, cutting off power to about 2.95 million households.
The quake caused an emergency shutdown at HEPCO's Tomato-Atsuma thermal power plant, which was covering almost half the electricity demand in Hokkaido at the time of the disaster. A shutdown at a large-scale power plant disrupts the balance between electricity output and consumption, which may damage generators.
HEPCO therefore decided to also suspend the three other plants that were operating at the time of the earthquake.
"It will likely take at least one week to restore [the power supply] for all of Hokkaido," Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko said Thursday.
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