TEPCO will try to sell power outside usual service areas

December 4, 2013

TEPCO plans to sell power outside its home turf

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201312040052

By MARI FUJISAKI/ Staff Writer

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to enter the turfs of other electricity suppliers in fiscal 2014, a move that could lead to full-scale competition in an industry long monopolized by regional utilities, sources said.

The success of TEPCO’s plan, however, depends on whether the operator of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant gains approval to restart reactors in Niigata Prefecture.

TEPCO plans to first sell electricity to corporate users outside its usual Kanto service areas, and then to individual households when the government fully liberalizes the electricity retailing business in fiscal 2016, the sources said.

The policy will be included in TEPCO’s revised rehabilitation plan due before the end of the year, according to the sources.

With TEPCO’s operations encumbered by the 2011 Fukushima accident, other regional utilities are entering the market in the Tokyo metropolitan area, TEPCO’s prime territory.

In October, Chubu Electric Power Co. acquired an 80-percent stake in Diamond Power Corp., an electricity retailing subsidiary of trading house Mitsubishi Corp., and began selling power in the capital and other areas.

Kansai Electric Power Co. also plans to sell electricity in the Tokyo area starting in spring 2014.

TEPCO’s electricity rates are the highest among the nine major regional utilities, excluding Okinawa Electric Power Co. The company will likely be forced to lower rates and take other measures to compete.

According to its rehabilitation plan, TEPCO plans to lower its electricity rates after it restarts two idle reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture in summer 2014.

But before that can happen, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant will have to pass the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s new safety standards.

In addition, many in the general public oppose TEPCO’s reactor restart plan.

If TEPCO’s nuclear reactors cannot resume operations, the company will have only a limited amount of electricity to sell outside its service areas.