Japan to Stabilise Power Supply With Thermal Units

Japanese energy company Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) plans to restart one of its six mothballed thermal power units to help stabilise power supply in the winter following an earthquake this summer.

Use of the 265MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) fired unit at TEPCO's Goi plant in Chiba, near Tokyo, follows an earthquake on July 16 which forced the indefinite closure of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in north-western Japan.

The company is expected to restart two more mothballed Units at its Yokosuka plant with a total capacity of 700MW before the summer of 2008.

TEPCO also plans to buy about 18.8 million tonnes of LNG this year, up from its earlier projection of 17.5 million tonnes, according to news agency Reuters reports.

Reported by staff writer