Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Tuesday restarted its planned power outages in the prefectures around Tokyo in a bid to ensure the nation does not experience huge blackouts.

In Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures, power supplies were cut from 7 a.m. for a few hours, the power company said.

Tokyo Electric is currently determining if a rebound in consumption will lead to demand that is above its capacity, in which case Monday's suspended area-by-area scheduled blackouts will be fully enforced through 10 p.m..

The original plan announced by TEPCO was that there would be planned 3-hour power cuts at five predetermined time slots, in a rotating order, in Tokyo and its neighboring prefectures.

During the scheduled outages TEPCO has said that it will supply a certain amount of electricity to railway operators.

The government has called for a nationwide energy saving effort to reduce consumption and has called for the public to switch off electrical appliances even if it causes inconvenience.

The planned blackouts, which are scheduled to run through April, will affect people living and working in Tokyo, Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, Tochigi, Yamanashi and part of Shizuoka prefectures.

The shutdown of power in TEPCO's service region is expected to affect 45 million people.