Joint venture unit to boost Tepco's summer supply

The TEPCO-Nippon Steel joint venture plans to test start a new combined-cycle gas-fired unit in April.

The Kimitsu Cooperative Thermal Power Co plans to supply Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, half the power generated from its 152.9 megawatt No.6 unit, to help Tepco avoid a power shortage next summer.

It will use gas from a neighbouring Nippon Steel plant, a company official said.

Kimitsu aims to start the unit's commercial operations at the end of June, the official said, and

Tepco expects to secure an extra 2,700 MW of power from the unit by August, after Kimitsu starts its commercial operatioons by end of June.

Other sources would be four emergency gas turbines, with a total capacity of 1,138 MW, and a new 500-MW combined-cycle gas-fired unit in its Kawasaki plant, as well as its Soma and Joban power plant joint ventures with Tohoku Electric Power Co, totalling 1,130 MW.

A Tepco official at the Kawasaki plant said on Wednesday the Kawasaki 2-1 unit is expected to start generating power on test basis by the end of May.

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