The nation's biggest power utilities are pushing ahead with plans to spend more on new turbines to improve the efficiency of their gas-fired power plants in an effort to lower fuel bills amid a protracted debate over the role of nuclear power. Chubu Electric Power ...
Utilities spent ¥1.4 trillion last year to maintain idled reactors
The nation's nine utilities with nuclear power plants had to spend a total of about ¥1.4 trillion last fiscal year to maintain their idled reactors, financial statements showed Monday, revealing part of the reason that electricity rates went up. Kyushu Electric Power Co. restarted a ...
Experts say faults at nuclear plant in northeast Japan could be active
A panel advising the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday it can't rule out the possibility that key geological faults running under the Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture are active. This won't immediately force Tohoku Electric Power Co. to scrap the sole reactor at ...
Seven utilities only capable of accepting 58% of solar power energy
A study has found that seven of the nation's utilities lack the transmission network capacity to accept all of the solar power energy that suppliers plan to generate under the feed-in tariff system, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday. Combined, they can ...
The government on Tuesday approved Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s plan to raise household electricity bills by 15.3 percent on average, with the surge in fossil fuel costs weighing on the utility's business in the absence of nuclear power generation following the 2011 Fukushima crisis. Hokkaido ...
Chugoku Electric Power Co. is considering selling electricity outside its service area like other utilities as Japan moves to fully liberalize its power market around April 2016, company sources said Saturday. After meeting demand within its service area, the Hiroshima-based company is expected to sell ...
Tohoku Electric to start coal swaps to hedge price swing risks from liberalization
Tohoku Electric Power Co., Japan's third-biggest coal user, will start trading coal swaps for the first time to manage price volatility risk as it prepares for liberalization of the electricity market. The Sendai-based utility plans to begin using swap contracts against the Newcastle coal index ...
Regional utilities rebuff anti-nuclear shareholders with reactor restart plans
The regional power utilities told their shareholders at annual meetings Thursday they will try to reactivate their idled nuclear reactors to improve business and rejected all proposals calling for a nuclear phaseout. The eight regional utilities also faced their stakeholders on the same day that ...
The Diet on Wednesday enacted legislation to end the grip regional monopolies have held for 60 years on the household electricity market by opening it up to greater competition. The move is expected to revolutionize the ¥7.5 trillion market for households and other small consumers ...
NRA blames plant operators for prolonged reactor safety checks
The head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority said Wednesday that nuclear power plant operators, rather than regulators, are the ones to blame for the prolonged safety review of reactors that started last July. "We are working hard so that the assessment process will be carried ...
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan is lobbying politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to support the construction of new nuclear power plants, sources said Friday. The federation's lobbying comes as the ruling party works on drafting a new national energy plan. ...
