Tokyo Electric Power Co. may cut its oil purchases by more than one-third as it boosts its reliance on coal plants to reduce an energy bill that's ballooned since the Fukushima nuclear crisis started.
Tepco will generate or buy as much as 54 percent more electricity from coal-fired plants starting this month compared with last year, according to calculations based on company statements. That may enable it to reduce its purchases of crude and fuel oil by as much as 3.95 million kiloliters, or 68,000 barrels a day, according to Osamu Fujisawa, an independent energy economist in Tokyo. Tepco bought 10.8 million kiloliters in the year that ended in March, the company said Wednesday in a report on its website.
Tepco's fuel costs surged after the March 11, 2011, earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, since it's had to rely on oil, gas and coal to replace idled nuclear capacity. The utility will do "whatever it takes" to return to profitability and hopes to do so without raising rates for customers, Naomi Hirose, Tepco's president, said earlier this month.