Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO) use of costly crude and fuel oil rapidly fell last month as it relied more on nuclear energy and burned more liquefied natural gas – LNG, and coal to meet its power generation needs. TEPCO is Asia’s largest utility and confirmed that its consumption of both crude and fuel oil fell by nearly two-thirds in January compared to the previous year.
According to government data the utilisation rate at TEPCO’s nuclear power plants averaged 62.2% in January which is over 14 percentage points higher than a year ago, as two units returned to commercial operations at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant.
A major earthquake in northern Japan in 2007 forced TEPCO to shut its entire nuclear complex, however the No.6 reactor at the nuclear plant – which is the world’s largest – resumed commercial operations in mid-January, following the No.7 reactor which resumed commercial operations at the end of December 2009.
The higher nuclear plant utilisation has helped TEPCO limit their thermal fuel use, and consequently meant the power firm has had to revise its thermal fuel consumption plans for the current fiscal year.
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Source: uk.reuters.com
Tags: gas business prices
