UPDATE 1-Kyushu Elec warns of summer power shortages

(Adds detail on other utilities)

By Risa Maeda

TOKYO May 19 (Reuters) - Kyushu Electric Power Co (9508.T) warned of power shortages this summer for its service area where several car and chip-making assembly lines are located, as two reactors shut for maintenance are not likely to be operating by the end of June.

The company is not alone in warning of the risk of power shortages as increased caution over nuclear safety keeps reactors shut for maintenance. Hokuriku Electric Power Co (9505.T) has made a similar call to its users in northwest Japan. [ID:nL3E7F70V3]

Users in Tokyo and northern Japan, where a massive quake and tsunami in March damaged several power facilities of Tokyo Electric Power Co (9501.T) and Tohoku Electric Power Co (9506.T), have been asked to save electricity this summer, with the government calling for a 15 percent conservation from ordinary peak usage levels.

Unless the two reactors at Kyushu Electric's Genkai nuclear plant in Saga prefecture come online by the summer, its power generation capacity could fall short of demand by around 15 percent, a company spokeswoman quoted President Toshio Manabe as saying on Wednesday.

Manabe said the southern Japan utility would ask users to save electricity from around June 10 to mid-July as it waits for local authorities to approve the restart of the No.2 and No.3 reactors.

Customers could be asked to sharply restrict electricity use through to the end of September, depending on the timing of the restart of the reactors, he said.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Kyushu Electric had expected to restart the 559 megawatt No.2 reactor in late March and the 1,180 megawatt No.3 reactor in early April, paving the way for commercial operation a month later to meet peak summer demand.

But the nuclear crisis has made residents wary of safety at the 36-year old plant because it is also located in a quake-prone area and particularly as the No.3 reactor uses mixed-oxide fuel, or MOX fuel, that contains plutonium from recycled nuclear fuel.

Kyushu Electric has kept the two reactors shut while completing steps to meet new safety regulations the central government ordered after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co's (9501.T) Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to leaks of radiation.

Manabe was also quoted as saying he expected the governor of Saga to comment on the restart of the two reactors after the prefecture assembly's special committee holds a meeting on the issue in early June.

Kyushu's neighbouring Chugoku Electric Power Co (9504.T) is waiting for a decision by local authorities on whether to go ahead with its plan to build a new nuclear plant in Kaminoseki city, Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan.

The governor of Yamaguchi, Sekinari Nii, told reporters on public broadcaster NHK on Thursday he would like the prefecture assembly to decide in June whether a license for Chugoku Electric to reclaim land for the new plant can be extended beyond its original expiry in October, 2012.

In March, Chugoku Electric put preparation work on hold and also said it may delay the planned March 2012 start of commercial operations for a third reactor at its sole Shimane nuclear plant. [ID:nL3E7ES0IP] (Additional reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by David Holmes)