Nippon Paper Industries Co. will begin selling electricity in fiscal 2014 by building power facilities mainly in eastern Japan, a company source said Tuesday.
Nippon Paper plans to set up several thermal power plants with a capacity of several hundred thousand kilowatts each in the premises of its existing paper mills, including a 100,000-kw coal-fired plant in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, the source said.
The Tokyo-based paper manufacturer already has power generating facilities totaling 1.7 million kw in capacity, mostly for power needs at its mills with a small amount of excess power sold to utilities.
Nippon Paper will retail electricity to affiliated firms in fiscal 2014 and plans to expand the business to other companies and municipalities from fiscal 2015 for projected annual sales of about ¥50 billion, the source said.