TEPCO to form new entity for renewables business

It will develop projects of 6 to 7 million kW within and outside Japan.

The board of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has decided to form a separate entity that will handle its renewable energy generation business, an announcement revealed.

The new company aims to develop projects on a total scale of 6 to 7 million kW within and outside Japan. The new entitiy will be up by 1 April 2020.

"The aims of this company-split are to create a company that will specialize in renewable energy sources intended to increase the recognition of TEPCO Group’s renewable energy business and coordinate with both domestic and overseas partners, as well as clarify responsibility and authority needed to make quick decisions about large-scale investments, and flexibly procure capital required for these investments," the company said.

After the company-split, these objectives will be pursued whilst expanding the scale of the company’s business and increasing revenue with the goal of achieving $939.75m (JPY100b) in profit in FY2030.

TEPCO currently has three subsidiaries: TEPCO Fuel & Power for fuel and thermal power generation, TEPCO Power Grid for transmission and distribution, and TEPCO Energy Partner for its retail initiatives.

A fully-owned subsidiary of TEPCO will be formed as a succeeding company in October 2019 after which TEPCO HD and the new company will execute an absorption-type split agreement in November.

TEPCO has already started its foray into renewables, especially into offshore wind projects, marked by its partnership with wind energy giant Ørsted. The two will jointly work on the Choshi offshore wind project near Tokyo. TEPCO has been working on a seabed survey that will last up until the end of January 2019 to assess the feasibility of the project.