Tokyo Electric Power Co said on Sunday that it would conduct its first-ever rolling blackout from Monday to help prevent an unexpected large-scale power outage after a powerful earthquake shut two nuclear plants indefinitely on Friday. (Reuter)
The outage schedule for today was announced last night by Tokyo Electric Power Co(TEPCO) here in pdf [J].
TEPCO’s site and the pdf had been inaccessible by too much traffic, and the table is not so easy to browse. Here @ryota_yama made a postal-code search site,
Type your 3digits-and-4digits postal code then submit, which group your place is inside and the blackout-planned time will be displayed.
The source code is available on the site as well.
The groups, schedules and blackout execution seem to be changed often (as it is the first time ever for TEPCO and kanto residents), you should check the official site. Their English/Chinese/Korean sites do not always have the same full information so please also check the Japanese site.
[Update] There is a checker by (Japanese) address as well.
American TV talent Daniel Kahl offers the English translation of the blackout list on his blog. He also keeps updating information on his twitter @DanielKahl
Home/Office and railways use the different power systems, so you should expect that the one is working whilst the other does not. Many factories/companies in Kanto announced Monday off, or do not recommend to come to offices in central Tokyo if it is not easy to do so. Please check them before going out.
NHK reports that today’s Group 1 blackout was canceled, Group 2 is uncertain. You may not experience blackout even it is on the plan, but please be prepared.
Tokyo tech start-up User Local has also set up a similar system that allows you to find it by entering the name of town. It has both English and Japanese version.
http://machi.userlocal.jp/teiden/en.php