Power sold by the nation's 10 regional electric utilities in January surged 8.9 percent year on year to 83.2 billion kwh, an all-time high for a winter month, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan.
The figure, which is the second-highest ever for any month after that for August 2002, was attributed to colder-than-average weather that swept across the nation and boosted heating demand.
Sales of electricity for lighting use jumped 13.8 percent and that for industrial-use rose 3.7 percent.