TOKYO, Reuters – Japan has lifted a warning about power supply for Tokyo and the surrounding area on Wednesday. This was after supplies stabilised. It comes a day following warnings from the government that there could be blackouts due to the earthquake of last week.

At 1100 GMT (11.00 GMT), the alert was lifted after the government made an urgent request to save energy on the previous day. Businesses and homes responded with dimming the lights and turning down the thermostats.

Japan avoided serious power cuts despite the warnings of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the power company that powers Tokyo and the surrounding areas, on Tuesday evening.

Thermal power stations in Japan were immediately shut down after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. Tokyo was also hit with unseasonably cold temperatures. The government requested that electricity be conserved starting on Tuesday morning.

In the afternoon it renewed its plea, but warned consumers about possible outages if they continued to consume energy.

We felt that the situation was dangerous because we weren’t meeting the energy-saving targets. We asked the Trade Ministry for assistance and requested that the Minister call for additional energy-saving measures.” A Tepco official stated Wednesday.

The official said that we were able achieve the level of energy savings from 15:00 onwards because everybody responded to our pleas for energy reductions. All we can do right now is feel grateful.”

Similar warnings had previously been issued to the Northeastern regions powered by Tohoku Electric Power Co. However, that warning was lifted on Tuesday.