Kansai Electric to utilize mothballed oil-fired unit

Kansai Electric plans to test run an ageing 450 megawatt oil-fired unit at its Kainan plant in mid-July.

The unit has been mothballed since 2001/02 but is scheduled to begin commercial operations in August to meet a power shortfall over the summer due to the closure of nuclear plants.

Kansai relied on nuclear reactors for half its power output until the radiation crisis at Fukushima last year.

Businesses and consumers served by Kansai Electric in and around Osaka, western Japan, have been asked to cut power consumption by 15 percent this summer to cope with the shortfall in its output.

Three other oil-fired units at the Kainan plant are being used for commercial operations. But one of them, the 600-megawatt No.3 unit, was ordered shut on Monday following a steam leak.

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