Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the disaster-struck Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, expects to post a profit next year even if unable to restart any reactors, according to a plan given to its creditor banks.

Tepco will likely turn a profit for the fourth straight year due to cost-cutting efforts and reduced fuel costs, the result of plummeting crude oil prices, the plan shows. Tepco expects to post an unconsolidated pretax profit of ¥314 billion ($2.56 billion) for the current business year to March 31.

The plan also stipulates that Tepco plans to issue ¥330 billion in corporate bonds in fiscal 2016, the first bonds the utility will have issued in six years.

Next year, Tepco's pretax profit is projected at ¥156.9 billion if nuclear reactors at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata Prefecture are reactivated next October, and ¥114 billion if restarted in January 2017, according to the plan.

The plan did not included a profit figure if the plant remains offline the entire year, saying only that it would still turn a profit.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority has indicated readiness to examine whether reactors. 6 and 7 units at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant meet new safety regulations adopted in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster at Fukushima No. 1.

But it is unclear whether Tepco could obtain local consent to reactivate them as Niigata Gov. Hirohiko Izumida maintains a cautious stance.