information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
7 Décembre 2014
December 7, 2014
JIJI
OSAKA – Kansai Electric Power Co. is considering an additional electricity rate hike of more than 10 percent for households next spring, it was learned Saturday.
The company will file an application for approval by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as early as this month, informed sources said.
It also plans to raise its electricity rates for corporate customers, for which ministry approval is not required.
The rate hikes under consideration are designed to prevent further deterioration of earnings amid uncertainty over when the nuclear reactors owned by the company will be able to be brought back online under the stricter safety standards that were adopted after the March 2011 meltdowns crippled Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 plant and displaced thousands of people.
If the application is approved, Kansai Electric will be the second power utility after Hokkaido Electric Power Co. to raise electricity rates for a second time since the nuclear crisis began.
In spring 2013, Kansai Electric raised prices by 9.75 percent for households and 17.26 percent for corporate users.
But its earnings have since fallen because the utility has been unable to gain regulatory approval to reactivate reactors 3 and 4 at the Oi nuclear plant and units 3 and 4 at its Takahama nuclear plant, both in Fukui Prefecture.
The margins of the last rate hikes were based on the assumption that the reactors would be restarted soon.
“We can’t avoid raising rates if it is hard for our company to survive without it,” President Makoto Yagi said last month.
The company is expected to suffer a loss for the fourth straight year for fiscal 2014 ending March 31.
Kansai Electric aims to stop posting losses by raising rates from the beginning of fiscal 2015 starting April 1.
The company apparently believes it will be able to mollify customers if it promises to lower the rates once the reactors are restarted.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201412070027
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Amid its failure to restart idled nuclear reactors, Kansai Electric Power Co. is considering raising household electricity rates again by around 10 percent due to the increased fuel costs for thermal power generation, the second such hike in two years.
The utility plans to apply for industry ministry approval to increase the utility tariff by year-end at the earliest.
If the ministry gives the green light, household electricity rates can be increased next spring, depending on how KEPCO proceeds with the tariff hike procedures.
The company is also considering raising the rate for corporate electricity customers at a percentage higher than the hike for household customers.
KEPCO raised the household electricity rate by an average of 9.75 percent in May 2013. The increase was calculated under the scenario that the utility’s four idled nuclear reactors would be restarted after the summer of 2013.
But the company has been unable to receive clearance to restart its reactors so far. The increased fuel costs for thermal power generation has kept KEPCO operating in the red since its reactors were shut down in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The utility is likely to register a loss for the fourth consecutive year in fiscal 2014, which ends March 2015.
The utility said it may be able to reduce electricity rates once it can restart some of its idled reactors at the Takahama and Oi nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture.
Among the regional utilities, Hokkaido Electric Power Co. raised household electricity rates by an average of 15.33 percent in November. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, currently has no plans to increase the utility tariff.
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