TEPCO Fuel
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

, also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese
electric utility An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
servicing Japan's
Kantō region The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...
,
Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 817,192 (1 January 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the no ...
, and the eastern portion of
Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...
. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho,
Chiyoda, Tokyo is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English.Profile< ...
, and international branch offices exist in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, and
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. It is a founding member of strategic consortiums related to energy innovation and research; such as
JINED The , headquartered in Tokyo, is a consortium of thirteen Japanese companies, with the prime purpose of "proposal and research activities for nuclear power plant project orders in emerging countries". The thirteen-member consortium was esta ...
,
INCJ The , headquartered in Tokyo, is a public-private partnership between the Japanese government and 19 major corporations. The INCJ was established as a temporary (15 years) corporate entity on July 27, 2009; with the prime objective of "boosti ...
and MAI. In 2007, TEPCO was forced to shut the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant The is a large, modern (housing the world's first advanced boiling water reactor or ABWR) nuclear power plant on a site.TEPCO Official Press Release (Japanese)First in Japan – Use of the Full Area for Power Plant Buildings, Reinforced Concret ...
after the Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. That year it posted its first loss in 28 years. Corporate losses continued until the plant reopened in 2009. Following the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...
, one of its power plants was the site of one of the world's most serious ongoing nuclear disaster, the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
. TEPCO could face ¥ ($) in special losses in the current business year to March 2012, and the Japanese government plans to put TEPCO under effective state control to guarantee compensation payments to the people affected by the accident. The Fukushima disaster displaced 50,000 households in the evacuation zone because of leaks of radioactive materials into the air, soil and sea. In July 2012, TEPCO received ¥1 trillion from the Japanese government in order to prevent collapse of the company to ensure electricity is still being supplied to Tokyo and its surrounding municipalities, and for the decommissioning of the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The ...
. TEPCO's management subsequently made a proposal to its shareholders for the company to be part-nationalized. The Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation later became the majority stockholder to oversee damages and decommissioning of the power plant. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $100bn in May 2012.


History

Japan's electricity sector, nationalized in 1939 in preparation of
total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combata ...
(the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
), were privatized in 1951 on behest of the U.S./Allied occupation forces, creating nine privately owned
government-granted monopolies In economics, a government-granted monopoly (also called a "de jure monopoly" or "regulated monopoly") is a form of coercive monopoly by which a government grants exclusive privilege to a private individual or firm to be the sole provider of a goo ...
, one in a certain region; this included TEPCO. Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. was established by reorganizing Kanto Haiden and Nippon Shuden, which were established through wartime integration. In the 1950s, the company's primary goal was to facilitate a rapid recovery from the infrastructure devastation of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the recovery period, the company had to expand its supply capacity to catch up with the country's rapid economic growth by developing fossil fuel power plants and a more efficient transmission network. In the 1960s and 1970s, the company faced the challenges of increased
environmental pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
and oil shocks. TEPCO began addressing environmental concerns through expansion of its LNG fueled power plant network as well as greater reliance on nuclear power generation. The first nuclear unit at the Fukushima Dai-ichi (Fukushima I) nuclear power plant began operational generation on March 26, 1971. During the 1980s and 1990s, the widespread use of air-conditioners and IT/OA appliances resulted a gap between day and night electricity demand. In order to reduce surplus generation capacity and increase capacity utilization, TEPCO developed pumped storage hydroelectric power plants and promoted thermal storage units. Recently, TEPCO is expected to play a key role in achieving Japan's targets for reduced carbon dioxide emissions under the
Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...
. It also faces difficulties related to the trend towards deregulation in Japan's electric industry as well as low power demand growth. In light of these circumstances, TEPCO launched an extensive sales promotion campaign called 'Switch!', promoting all-electric housing in order to both achieve the more efficient use of its generation capacity as well as erode the market share of gas companies.


Major subsidiaries

As Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. is a holding company, there are several major wholly owned subsidiaries. *
TEPCO Power Grid , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiw ...
- Responsible for managing
power grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...
around Kantō region and transmits and distributes electricity between electricity wholesaler and retailer. *
TEPCO Energy Partner , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisa ...
-
Electricity retailer Electricity retailing is the final sale of electricity from generation to the end-use consumer. This is the fourth major step in the electricity delivery process, which also includes generation, transmission and distribution. Beginnings Electr ...
operating under "TEPCO" brand throughout Japan, except Okinawa. *
TEPCO Fuel & Power , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisa ...
- Operates fossil fuel power stations mainly for TEPCO Energy Partner. *
Tokyo Electric Generation Company Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.4 ...
- Generates wholesale electricity for
electricity market In a broad sense, an electricity market is a system that facilitates the exchange of electricity-related goods and services. During more than a century of evolution of the electric power industry, the economics of the electricity markets had un ...
. *
Tokyo Electric Power Services Co. Ltd (TEPSCO) Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
- Provides consulting services for electric power industry.


Corporate overview

* Capital stock: ¥676,424,197,050 * Total outstanding shares: 1,352,876,531 * Number of shareholders: 821,841 * Electricity sales (FY 2004): 92,592 million kWh (lighting), 194,148 million kWh (power), 286,741 million kWh (total) * Peak demand: 64.3 million kW (July 24, 2001) * Number of customers (ending March 31, 2005): 25,120,000 / 83.89 million kW (lighting), 2,630,000 thousand / 39.75 million kWh (power), 27,740,000 / 123.64 million kW (total) * Revenue from electricity sales: ¥4,637.2 billion yen (FY 2004)


Community compensation

Tokyo Electric Power could face 2 trillion yen ($23.6 bln) in special losses in the current business year to March 2012 to compensate communities near its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, according to
JP Morgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the wo ...
. Japan plans to put TEPCO under effective state control so it can meet its compensation payments to people affected by radiation from its Fukushima I plant. Tokyo will set aside several trillion yen in public funds that TEPCO can "dip into if it runs short for payouts to people affected".


Salary pay cuts

The company workers agreed to a management proposal to cut their pay as a sense of responsibility for the world's worst nuclear disaster. Annual remuneration for board members will be reduced by 50 percent since April 2011, while payment for managers will be cut by 25 percent and workers by 20 percent both since July 2011 and bonuses since June 2011. The company expects to save about 54 billion yen ($659 million) a year from the pay cuts. In July 2012 it was announced that annual salaries of managers will be reduced by at least 30%, with workers pay cut remaining at 20%. On average employees pay would be cut by 23.68%. In addition, the portion of the employee health insurance program that the company covers will be reduced from 60% to 50%, the standard in Japan.


Power stations and generation capacity

* Hydro: 160 / 8,521.0 MW * Thermal (oil, coal, LN(P)G, geothermal): 26 / 36,995.0 MW * Nuclear: 3 / 17,308.0 MW * Wind: 1 / 1.0 MW * Total: 190 / 62,825.0 MW


Position in the industry

TEPCO is the largest electric utility in Japan and the 4th largest electric utility in the world after German
RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States. The company is Europe's most climate threatening Company, the world's number two in offsh ...
, French
Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...
and
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
's E.ON. As TEPCO stands in a leading position in this industry, they have relatively a strong effect for Japanese economics, environment, and energy industry.


Management and finance

For the fiscal years ending in 2011, 2012 the company had a pretax loss, in 2013 the deficit was 377.6 billion yen. In the following year 2014 red figures were expected too.


Generation

The company's power generation consists of two main networks.
Fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
power plants around
Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...
are used for peak load supply and
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
s in
Fukushima may refer to: Japan * Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture ** Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan ***Fukushima University, national university in Japan *** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...
and
Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...
provide base load supply. Additionally, hydroelectric plants in the mountainous areas outside the
Kanto Plain Kantō (Japanese) Kanto is a simplified spelling of , a Japanese word, only omitting the diacritics. In Japan Kantō may refer to: *Kantō Plain *Kantō region *Kantō-kai, organized crime group *Kanto (Pokémon), a geographical region in the ' ...
, despite their relatively small capacity compared to fossil fuel and nuclear generation, remain important in providing peak load supply. The company also purchases electricity from other regional or wholesale electric power companies like
Tohoku Electric Power is an electric utility, servicing 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures in Tōhoku region plus Niigata Prefecture. It provides electricity at 100 V, 50 Hz, though some area use 60 Hz. Tohoku Electric Power ...
, J-POWER, and
Japan Atomic Power Company The is a company initially formed to jump start the commercial use of nuclear power in Japan, and currently operates two different sites. According to the official web site, JAPC is "the only power company in Japan solely engaged in nuclear en ...
.


Transmission and distribution

The company has built a radiated and circular
grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...
between power plants and urban/industrial demand areas. Each transmission line is designed to transmit electricity at high-voltage (66-500kV) between power plants and substations. Normally transmission lines are strung between towers, but within the Tokyo metropolitan area high-voltage lines are located underground. From substations, electricity is transmitted via the distribution grid at low-voltage (22-66kV). For high-voltage supply to large buildings and factories, distribution lines are directly connected to customers' electricity systems. In this case, customers must purchase and set up transformers and other equipment to run electric appliances. For low voltage supply to houses and small shops, distribution lines are first connected to the company's transformers (seen on utility poles and utility boxes), converted to 100/200V, and finally connected to end users. Under normal conditions, TEPCO's transmission and distribution infrastructure is notable as one of the most reliable electricity networks in the world. Blackout frequency and average recovery time compares favorably with other electric companies in Japan as well as within other developed countries. The company instituted its first-ever
rolling blackout A rolling blackout, also referred to as rota or rotational load shedding, rota disconnection, feeder rotation, or a rotating outage, is an intentionally engineered electrical power shutdown in which electricity delivery is stopped for non-overla ...
s following the shutdown of the Fukushima I and II plants which were close to the epicenter of the March 2011 earthquake. For example, on the morning of Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 700,000 households had no power for three hours. The company had to deal with a 10 million kW gap between demand and production on March 14, 2011.


Corporate image


Safety incidents

On August 29, 2002, the
government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...
revealed that TEPCO was guilty of false reporting in routine governmental inspection of its nuclear plants and systematic concealment of plant safety incidents. All seventeen of its boiling-water reactors were shut down for inspection as a result. TEPCO's chairman Hiroshi Araki, President Nobuya Minami, Vice-President Toshiaki Enomoto, as well as the advisers Shō Nasu and Gaishi Hiraiwa stepped-down by September 30, 2002. The utility "eventually admitted to two hundred occasions over more than two decades between 1977 and 2002, involving the submission of false technical data to authorities". Upon taking over leadership responsibilities, TEPCO's new president issued a public commitment that the company would take all the countermeasures necessary to prevent
fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...
and restore the nation's confidence. By the end of 2005, generation at suspended plants had been restarted, with government approval. In 2007, however, the company announced to the public that an internal investigation had revealed a large number of unreported incidents. These included an unexpected unit criticality in 1978 and additional systematic false reporting, which had not been uncovered during the 2002 inquiry. Along with scandals at other Japanese electric companies, this failure to ensure corporate compliance resulted in strong public criticism of Japan's electric power industry and the nation's
nuclear energy policy Nuclear energy policy is a national and international policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy and the nuclear fuel cycle, such as uranium mining, ore concentration, conversion, enrichment for nuclear fuel, generating electrici ...
. Again, the company made no effort to identify those responsible.


2008 shutdown

In 2008, Tokyo Electric, forced to shut the
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant The is a large, modern (housing the world's first advanced boiling water reactor or ABWR) nuclear power plant on a site.TEPCO Official Press Release (Japanese)First in Japan – Use of the Full Area for Power Plant Buildings, Reinforced Concret ...
after an earthquake, posted its first loss in 28 years as oil and gas costs soared.


Nuclear accidents

On 11 March 2011 several nuclear reactors in Japan were badly damaged by the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...
. The
Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant The was Japan's first commercial nuclear power plant. The first unit was built in the early 1960s to the British Magnox design, and generated power from 1966 until it was decommissioned in 1998. A second unit, built at the site in the 1970s, wa ...
lost external electric power, experienced the failure of one of its two cooling pumps, and two of its three emergency power generators. External electric power could only be restored two days after the earthquake. The Japanese government declared an "atomic power emergency" and evacuated thousands of residents living close to TEPCO's Fukushima I plant. Reactors 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for planned maintenance. The remaining reactors were shut down automatically after the
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
, but the subsequent
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
flooded the plant, knocking out emergency generators needed to run pumps which cool and control the reactors. The flooding and earthquake damage prevented assistance being brought from elsewhere. Over the following days there was evidence of partial
nuclear meltdown A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internation ...
s in reactors 1, 2 and 3; hydrogen explosions destroyed the upper cladding of the building housing reactors 1 and 3; an explosion damaged reactor 2's containment; and severe fires broke out at reactor 4. The Fukushima nuclear disaster revealed the dangers of building multiple nuclear reactor units close to one another. This proximity triggered the parallel, chain-reaction accidents that led to hydrogen explosions blowing the roofs off reactor buildings and water draining from open-air
spent fuel pool Spent fuel pools (SFP) are storage pools (or "ponds" in the United Kingdom) for spent fuel from nuclear reactors. They are typically 40 or more feet (12 m) deep, with the bottom 14 feet (4.3 m) equipped with storage racks designed to hold f ...
s—a situation that was potentially more dangerous than the loss of reactor cooling itself. Because of the proximity of the reactors, Plant Director Masao Yoshida "was put in the position of trying to cope simultaneously with core meltdowns at three reactors and exposed fuel pools at three units". The Japanese authorities rated the events at reactors 1, 2 and 3 as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences) on the
International Nuclear Event Scale The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) was introduced in 1990 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in order to enable prompt communication of safety significant information in case of nuclear accidents. The s ...
, while the events at reactor 4 were placed at level 3 (Serious Incident). The situation as a whole was rated as level 7 (Major Accident). On 20 March, Japan's chief cabinet secretary
Yukio Edano is a Japanese politician who served as the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from its formation in 2017 until 2021. A member of the House of Representatives in the Diet since 1993, he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and M ...
"confirmed for the first time that the nuclear complex — with heavy damage to reactors and buildings and with radioactive contamination throughout — would be closed once the crisis was over." At the same time, questions are being asked, looking back, about whether company management waited too long before pumping seawater into the plant, a measure that would ruin and has now ruined the reactors;Belson, Ken, Keith Bradsher and Matthew L. Wald
"Executives May Have Lost Valuable Time at Damaged Nuclear Plant"
''The New York Times'', March 19, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
Shirouzu, Norihiko, Phred Dvorak, Yuka Hayashi and Andrew Morse
"Bid to 'Protect Assets' Slowed Reactor Fight"
''The Wall Street Journal'', March 21, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-21.
and, looking forward, "whether time is working for or against the workers and soldiers struggling to re-establish cooling at the crippled plant." One report noted that defense minister,
Toshimi Kitazawa is a previous Japanese defence minister. He is a politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Nagano, Nagano and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected t ...
, on 21 March had committed "military firefighters to spray water around the clock on an overheated storage pool at Reactor No. 3." The report concluded with "a senior nuclear executive who insisted on anonymity but has many contacts in Japan sa ing that... caution ... splant operators have been struggling to reduce workers’ risk ... had increased the risk of a serious accident. He suggested that Japan's military assume primary responsibility. 'It's the same trade-off you have to make in war, and that is the sacrifice of a few for the safety of many,' he said. 'But a corporation just cannot do that.'" There has been considerable criticism to the way TEPCO handled the crisis. It was reported that seawater was used only after Prime Minister
Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for m ...
ordered it following an explosion at one reactor the evening of 12 March, though executives had started considering it that morning. TEPCO didn't begin using seawater at other reactors until 13 March. Referring to that same early decision-making sequence, "Michael Friedlander, a former senior operator at a
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
power plant with
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
reactors similar to the troubled ones in Japan, said the crucial question is whether Japanese officials followed G.E.’s emergency operating procedures." Kuni Yogo, a former atomic energy policy planner in Japan's
Science and Technology Agency Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
and Akira Omoto, a former TEPCO executive and a member of the
Japanese Atomic Energy Commission The was established in 1956 and serves as the regulatory body for nuclear power in Japan. The Atomic Energy Basic Law contained a provision for its creation, and shortly after the law was enacted, the organization started activities, which are s ...
both questioned TEPCO's management's decisions in the crisis. Kazuma Yokota, a safety inspector with Japan's
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency The was a Japanese nuclear regulatory and oversight branch of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It was created in 2001 during the 2001 Central Government Reform. Especially aft ...
, or NISA, was at Fukushima I at the time of the earthquake and tsunami and provided details of the early progression of the crisis. The Fukushima disaster displaced 50,000 households in the evacuation zone because of radioactivity releases into the air, soil and sea. In 2012 it was reported that 8.5 tonnes of radioactive water had leaked from Fukushima Daiichi No.4. In June 2012 TEPCO revealed, that in 2006 and 2008 TEPCO-employees made two studies in which the effect of tsunami-waves higher than the "official" expected height of 5.7 meters was studied on the performance of the reactors. This was done after the large Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The conclusion from the simulation in 2006 was, that a 13.5 meter wave would cause a complete loss of all power and would make it impossible to inject water into reactor No.5. The costs to protect the plant for such an event was estimated to be about 25 million dollars. In 2008 the effect of a 10 meter high tsunami was calculated. TEPCO failed in both cases to take advantage of this knowledge, and nothing was done to prevent such an event to happen, because the study sessions were conducted only as a training for junior employees, and the company did not really expect such large tsunamis. TEPCO subsequently signed a partnership with French company
Areva Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...
to treat the contaminated water. In 2016 three former TEPCO executives, chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and two vice presidents, were indicted for negligence resulting in death and injury. All were acquitted by the Tokyo District Court on Sept. 19, 2019.


Company future

On 30 March 2011, the president of TEPCO, Masataka Shimizu, was hospitalized with symptoms of dizziness and high blood pressure in the wake of an increasingly serious outlook for the Fukushima plant and increasing levels of radiation from the stricken plant, as well as media reports of TEPCO's imminent nationalization or bankruptcy triggered by the situation at the Fukushima plant. On July 31, 2012, TEPCO was substantially nationalized by receiving a capital injection of 1 trillion yen (US$12.5bn) from the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund (currently Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation), a government-backed support body. The Fund holds the majority (50.11%) of voting rights with an option to raise that figure to 88.69% by converting preferred stocks into common stocks. This Japan's biggest utility had received by the end of February 2016 at least 5.7609 trillion yen in state support since the tsunami. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $100bn in May 2012. In April all Japanese nuclear reactors were closed.


Offices


Power plants


Nuclear

In March 2008, Tokyo Electric announced that the start of operation of four new nuclear power reactors would be postponed by one year due to the incorporation of new earthquake resistance assessments. Units 7 and 8 of the
Fukushima Daiichi The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. Th ...
plant would now enter commercial operation in October 2014 and October 2015, respectively. However, following the nuclear crisis of 2011, these plans have been cancelled. According to TEPCO's official regulatory paper, starting operation of Higashidori is expressed as 'Not yet determined'.


Fossil fuel


Hydro

TEPCO has a total of 160 hydroelectric stations with a total capacity of 8,520 MW. The largest pumped-storage plants are: *
Nagawado Dam Nagawado Dam ( ja, 奈川渡ダム) is a dam in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, on the Azusa River completed in 1969.Shin-Takasegawa Pumped Storage Station The Shin-Takasegawa Pumped Storage Station (新高瀬川発電所) uses the Takase River (a tributary of the Shinano River) to operate a pumped storage hydroelectric scheme about west of Ōmachi in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Part of the system is ...
(1,280 MW) *
Tamahara Pumped Storage Power Station Tanbara Dam (玉原ダム, which can be mistakenly read Tamahara Dam) is a rock-fill embankment dam impounding the headwaters of the Hotchi River, a Tone River tributary in Gunma Prefecture of Japan. It is located north of Numata. It creates th ...
(1,200 MW) * Shiobara Pumped Storage Plant (900 MW) *
Imaichi Pumped Storage Plant The Imaichi Dam (今市ダム) is a concrete gravity dam on the Togawa River located west of Nikkō in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. The dam serves as the lower reservoir for the Imaichi Pumped Storage Power Station, while the Kuriyama Dam form ...
(1,050 MW) * Kazunogawa Pumped Storage Power Station (800 MW) *
Kannagawa Hydropower Plant The Kannagawa Hydropower Plant (神流川発電所) is an under construction pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant near Minamiaiki in Nagano Prefecture and Ueno, Gunma, Ueno in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. The power plant utilizes the Minamiaiki Riv ...
(2,820 MW)


Electric vehicle batteries and recharging

Under the lead of an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Tokyo Electric Power Company is working out next-gen car battery norms. It has developed a specification for high-voltage DC automotive fast charging using a JARI Level 3 DC connector, and formed the CHΛdeMO (stands for Charge and Move) association with Japanese automakers
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
,
Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...
and
Subaru ( or ; ) is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first ...
to promote it.


The city of Tokyo: second largest shareholder

On 11 April 2012 TEPCO announced that
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
had temporarily become the largest shareholder of the firm with 9.37 percent voting rights, after former largest share holders Dai-ichi Life Nippon Life Insurance Co. and Nippon Life Insurance Co. had sold their 3.42 and 3.29 percent stakes in the company. The two life insurance companies had lost their interest in TEPCO after the shares had lost almost all their value at the stock market. At the next shareholders meeting of TEPCO in June 2012, Tokyo hoped to put a halt to TEPCO's plans raising the price of electricity. This position was changed by later ownership changes.


TEPCO to cancel nuclear promotion abroad

Early June 2012 TEPCO announced that it would cancel all export of nuclear expertise abroad, because it needed to focus on the stabilisation of the damaged reactors in Fukushima. All participation in a program to supply and run two nuclear reactors at a plant in Vietnam would be cancelled. This project undertaken by International Nuclear Energy Development, a public company set up in 2010 by heavy machinery producers and power companies, including TEPCO, aims to promote Japanese nuclear expertise and exports. According to Naomi Hirose, director of TEPCO, "Our atomic power engineers still need to do a lot more to stabilise and decommission the reactors" at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, and: "It is impossible" to abandon the domestic task and promote exports.Yaho
TEPCO to cancel nuclear promotion abroad
/ref>


See also

* Denko-chan ( でんこちゃん), recently discontinued mascot character, designed by manga artist
Shungicu Uchida , known by the pen name , is a Japanese manga artist, novelist, essayist, actress, and singer. Biography She was born August 7, 1959 in Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Her father left the family when she and her younger sister were in pri ...
* Masataka Shimizu, TEPCO president during the March 11th 2011 disaster *
CHAdeMO CHAdeMO is a fast-charging system for battery electric vehicles, developed starting in 2010 by the CHAdeMO Association, formed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company and five major Japanese automakers. The name is an abbreviation of "CHArge de MOve ...
, electric vehicle standard *
EcoCute The EcoCute is an energy-efficient electric heat pump, water heating and supply system that uses heat extracted from the air to heat water for domestic, industrial and commercial use. Instead of the more conventional ammonia or haloalkane gases, ...
*
Nuclear power in Japan Prior to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan had generated 30% of its electrical power from nuclear reactors and planned to increase that share to 40%. Nuclear power energy was a national strategic priority in Japan. , of the 54 n ...
* International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Co., Ltd (JINED) *
Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) The , headquartered in Tokyo, is a public-private partnership between the Japanese government and 19 major corporations. The INCJ was established as a temporary (15 years) corporate entity on July 27, 2009; with the prime objective of "boost ...
*
Radiation effects from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The radiation effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are the observed and predicted effects as a result of the release of radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Fukushima Daiichii Nuclear Power P ...
*
Subaru R1e The Subaru R1e was a battery-electric microcar produced by Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), first shown at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show. The concept was jointly developed to prototype form with Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the giant Japanese utility com ...
*
Masao Yoshida (nuclear engineer) was born in Osaka, Japan and was a General Manager in the Nuclear Asset Management Department of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO), Japan. He was the plant manager during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, where he played a critical ...
* Shunichi Yamashita, physician in radiation sickness field *
Murder of Yasuko Watanabe was a 39-year-old unmarried Japanese people, Japanese woman, a senior economic researcher at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) moonlighting as a prostitute on the streets by night. She fell victim to murder by strangulation and rape by ...
(familiarly known as "TEPCO OL murder case" in Japan) *
Fukushima 50 Fukushima 50 is a pseudonym given by English-language media to a group of employees at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, a related series of nuclear accidents resulted in ...
, name for workers remaining on site of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster


Notes


References


External links

*
tokyo electric power company / gettyimages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokyo Electric Power Company Electric power companies of Japan Nuclear power companies of Japan Energy companies based in Tokyo Energy companies established in 1951 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1951 Japanese companies established in 1951 Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange Articles containing video clips