Japan's biggest power utilities, emerging from four years of gloom, have cut electricity rates as cheaper natural gas benefits both the bottom line and customers.
The global collapse in energy prices and abundant supplies of liquefied natural gas are a boon to Japan, the world's largest LNG importer. The utilities that use the biggest proportion of LNG are benefiting the most, and will lower electricity rates for households and industry in August.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. was one of six utilities to cut rates in the most recent round. Tepco accounted for over a quarter of the nation's record 89 million tons of LNG purchased in the year that ended March 31. Effectively a ward of the state following the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in March 2011, profit expectations for the utility for the business year ending next March have surged threefold in the past 12 months.