The Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said on Friday it will revise its tariffs for high-voltage industry customers next year to reflect soaring costs, but will take into account the supposed restart of unit no. 7 of its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant. .
Tepco Chairman Tomoaki Kobayakawa explained at a press conference the new pricing policy, including the impact of a supposed restart, although Japan’s nuclear regulator is continuing inspections after banning Tepco, operator of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, to restart its only functioning nuclear power plant. last year due to security breaches.
“We plan to revise the pricing system next year, as we cannot reflect soaring electricity supply costs in the electricity price,” Kobayakawa said.
“But we take into account that Unit No. 7 will be 75% operational next year, or will operate nine months out of 12, in the calculation of the new electricity price to reduce the load on customers,” said he said, adding that the company itself does not expect the unit to resume next year.
“We hope to restart the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa as soon as possible, but we cannot say when that will happen,” he said.
Tepco expects to announce details of the new pricing system for industry customers by the end of this month.
If it operated for nine months of the year, it would reduce the company’s annual costs by about 200 billion yen ($1.4 billion), Kobayakawa said.
Tepco hoped to restart the world’s largest nuclear power plant, with a capacity of 8,212 megawatts, in a bid to drastically reduce the utility’s operating costs.
But it drew criticism last year when plant failings were revealed, including security breaches that led to unauthorized staff accessing sensitive areas of the plant.
Japan’s industry minister said at the time that the plant would not be restarted any time soon.
However, as energy costs soar around the world, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently said Japan would restart more idle nuclear power plants and consider developing next-generation reactors, paving the way for a change. of nuclear energy policy a decade after the Fukushima disaster.
($1 = 143.1700 yen)
Category: Japan
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