Tokyo Electric to prioritize use of coal

Tokyo Electric will prioritize thermal coal due to its relative cheapness, followed by liquefied natural gas and fuel oil.



"We're trying to cut procurement costs," said Takashi Fujimoto, Tepco vice president.

The utility, which covers Tokyo and the surrounding region, has been ramping up its output from plants powered by fossil fuel since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

President Toshio Nishizawa told reporters that Tepco has been assessing the power supply/demand outlook for winter, but that no plans are available yet.

The utility only has two of its 17 nuclear reactors running currently as the Fukushima crisis has kept reactors shut for maintenance in Japan from restating.

To make up for the loss of nuclear power, Tepco has secured an additional 2,580 megawatts of capacity by resuming some mothballed fossil fuel-fired units and adding gas turbines. Yet, one of the two online nuclear reactors is due to enter regular maintenance in January and the other one in March, with no prospects for restarting any idled reactors.

"The number of reactors in operation would be zero next summer. If that is the case, we cannot help but ask for power savings next summer," Fujimoto said.

But Tepco has no new plans to add coal-fired generation beyond this winter, Fujimoto said on the sidelines of the news conference.

Tepco also said on Monday it expects peak demand this winter to be lower than last winter's 51,500 MW given the current trend for energy saving in Japan.

The full story is available at Reuters.