Power companies are making efforts to secure power generation for the summer peak demand, but the outlook is said to be quite grim.
Since electricity rates are more than 20% higher than last year, I believe that not only my family but other households are trying to save electricity.
In order to encourage households to save electricity and avoid unforeseen circumstances such as large-scale power outages, the government has launched a "power saving point system.
However, the points awarded under this point system have been criticized as ineffective because they are so few.
For example, in the case of Tokyo Electric Power Company, saving 1kw of electricity costs 5 points. Even if you save 10kw for a month, it will only amount to 50 yen. Many people may not be willing to participate in the point system to save electricity, and it is too cheap of a national policy.
In response to such criticism, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara announced yesterday that the government is considering giving 2,000 yen worth of points to households that participate in energy conservation.
If the points saved are added to the 2000 points, I think many households will participate in the program.
My family has a contract with Kyuden Mirai Energy, which offers JAL Card points. At the moment, we are not sure if we are eligible for the points, but we would like to participate in the program if we can earn points for saving electricity.
Incidentally, one of the appliances in our house that is not saving energy is the refrigerator. It has been nearly 20 years since I bought it, and I am still using it because there are no problems at the moment. However, it is time to replace it, so I am thinking of buying an energy-efficient refrigerator next time.
