Landslides caused by an earthquake are seen in Atsuma town, Hokkaido, northern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 7, 2018. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
TOKYO (Reuters) - After an earthquake knocked out power to 5.3 million people this week, Hokkaido Electric expects to restore service to most of them by the end of Friday, but experts say the island-wide outage highlights fundamental flaws in Japan's power grid.
The blackout that hit Japan's northern island of Hokkaido after early Thursday's quake was the nation's worst in seven years, but it would have been less extensive if the utility was not so reliant on one large power station, had spread its plants more widely, and could transfer power more easily from other areas, specialists and energy executives said.
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