Tokyo Electric Power Co. nearly doubled its coal consumption in July from a year earlier after starting new power plants that use the cheaper fuel.

The utility used 745,000 metric tons of coal last month, the most since at least April 2003, the earliest data available on Tepco’s website. Crude oil consumption fell by about 18 percent while use of fuel oil dropped 30 percent, the figures show.

Tepco, Japan’s biggest power company by generation capacity, has been turning increasingly to coal since beginning test operations of two coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 1,600 megawatts in April.

All 13 of its remaining nuclear reactors have been shut down since the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe, forcing it to rely on coal, oil and natural gas to meet demand.