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is a Japanese
electric utility An electric utility, or a power company, 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. Electric utilities are ...
holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...
servicing Japan's
Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...
,
Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...
, and the eastern portion of
Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...
. This area includes
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho,
Chiyoda, Tokyo , known as Chiyoda City in English,
." ''City of Chiyoda''. Retrieved on December 28, 2008.
is a S ...
, and international branch offices exist in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, and
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. It is a founding member of strategic consortiums related to energy innovation and research; such as JINED,
INCJ The , headquartered in Tokyo, is a public-private partnership between the Japanese government and 19 major corporations. Established as a temporary (15 years) corporate entity on July 27, 2009, the organization's prime objective is "boosting t ...
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 Concr ...
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 On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a  9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
, one of its power plants was the site of one of the world's most serious ongoing nuclear disasters, the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which r ...
. TEPCO could face ¥ (US$) in special losses in the current business year to March 2012, and the Japanese government plans to put TEPCO under effective state control to guarantee compensation payments to the people affected by the accident. The Fukushima disaster displaced 50,000 households in the evacuation zone because of leaks of radioactive materials into the air, soil and sea. In July 2012, TEPCO received ¥1 trillion (US$) 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 decommission the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma, Fukushima, Ōkuma and Futaba, Fukushima, Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, suffered major damage from the 201 ...
. 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 the damages and decommissioning of the power plant. The total cost of the disaster was estimated at $100 billion 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 (including civilian-associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare ov ...
(the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...
), were privatized in 1951 on behest of the U.S./Allied occupation forces, creating nine privately owned government-granted monopolies, 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. 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 ''Environmental Pollution'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the biological, health, and ecological effects of environmental pollution. It was established in 1980 as two parts: ''Environmental Pollution Series A: Ecological and Biologi ...
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 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 global warming is oc ...
. 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 Responsible for managing
power grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...
around Kantō region and transmits and distributes electricity between electricity wholesaler and retailer. * TEPCO Energy Partner
Electricity retailer Electricity retailing is the final sale of electricity from electricity generation, generation to the end-use consumer. This is the fourth major step in the electricity delivery process, which also includes electricity generation, generation, elec ...
operating under "TEPCO" brand throughout Japan, except Okinawa. * TEPCO Fuel & Power Operates fossil fuel power stations mainly for TEPCO Energy Partner. * Tokyo Electric Generation Company Generates wholesale electricity for
electricity market An electricity market is a system that enables the exchange of electrical energy, through an electrical grid. Historically, electricity has been primarily sold by companies that operate electric generators, and purchased by consumers or electr ...
. * Tokyo Electric Power Services Co. Ltd (TEPSCO) 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)


Ownership

In March 2010, the last year before 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, TEPCO listed 10 entities as its major shareholders, amounting to 27.35% of all shares. Five of the ten were Japanese banks, two were Japanese insurance companies, the remaining two were
Tokyo Metropolitan Government The is the government of the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis. One of the 47 Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Japan, the government consists of a popularly elected governor and assembly. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, headquarters build ...
and a group of TECPO employees. The largest shareholder was
Japan Trustee Services Bank , or JTSB, is a trust bank in Japan. JTSB is a joint venture between Resona Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, and acts as a subcontracted trustee for both banks to hold their customers' assets, which include pension fund and investment t ...
(4.47%). On April 11, 2012 TEPCO announced that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government 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.


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. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is the largest bank in the United States, and the world's largest bank by mar ...
.


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 would be reduced by 50 percent since April 2011, while payment for managers would 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 would 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 would 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 the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first ...
, French
Électricité de France Électricité de France SA (; ), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational corporation, multinational electric utility company owned by the government of France. Headquartered in Paris, with €139.7 billion in sales in 2023, EDF ope ...
and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
's
E.ON E.ON SE is a European multinational electric utility company based in Essen, Germany. It operates as one of the world's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers. The name originates from the Latin word '' aeon'', derived from ...
. 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 flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...
power plants around
Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...
are used for peak load supply and
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
s in Fukushima and
Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,131,009 (1 July 2023) 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 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 ''Pokémon ...
, 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 areas use 60 Hz. Tohoku Electric Power ...
,
J-POWER The , operating under the brand name J-POWER, formerly , is an electric utility in Japan. It mainly produces electricity from coal and hydroelectric power stations. It also has a few wind farms and is currently building a nuclear plant in Ohma, ...
, 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: Space partitioning * Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs ** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...
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-over ...
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.


Accidents and controversies


Safety incidents

On August 29, 2002, the
government of Japan The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative, executive (government), executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan. Japan is a unitary st ...
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 intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
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 electric ...
. Again, the company made no effort to identify those responsible.


2008 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa shutdown

In 2008, Tokyo Electric was forced to shut down 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 Concr ...
following the
2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake The ) was a powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake that occurred 10:13 local time (01:13 UTC) on July 16, 2007, in the northwest Niigata Prefecture of Japan. The earthquake, which occurred at a previously unknown offshore fault shook Niigata and ...
. To meet demand, the company purchased electricity from competitors and restarted thermal power plants, resulting in significant additional oil and gas consumption. These activities caused the company to post its first loss in 28 years.


2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster

On March 11, 2011, several nuclear reactors in Japan were badly damaged by the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a  9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
. 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, nominally a separate power statio ...
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 earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
, but the subsequent
tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) 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 underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
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 Internatio ...
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 ...
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 March 20, Japan's chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano "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 of Japan, Diet (national legislature). A native of Nagano (city), Nagano City and graduate of Waseda U ...
, on March 21 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 former politician who served as 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 ...
ordered it following an explosion at one reactor the evening of March 12, though executives had started considering it that morning. TEPCO didn't begin using seawater at other reactors until March 13. Referring to that same early decision-making sequence, "Michael Friedlander, a former senior operator at a
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
power plant with
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...
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 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 st ...
both questioned TEPCO's management's decisions in the crisis. Kazuma Yokota, a safety inspector with Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, 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. was a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power, active between 2001 and 2018. It was headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through t ...
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 September 19, 2019.


Company future

On March 30, 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 ($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.


Response to the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

TEPCO has continued its business operations in Russia, including the purchase of Russian gas despite international sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Unlike the many international corporations that have scaled back or ceased their activities in Russia, TEPCO has opted to maintain its engagement. Research conducted by the
Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Admi ...
categorized the company in the "Grade F" tier, labeled "Digging In," which denotes entities that have defied calls to exit or reduce operations in Russia. This decision has drawn criticism for undermining global efforts to isolate Russia economically and exert pressure to end its aggression.


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 9.1 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 (623 MW) *
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, Nagano, Ōmachi in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Part ...
(1,280 MW) * Tamahara Pumped Storage Power Station (1,200 MW) * Shiobara Pumped Storage Plant (900 MW) * Imaichi Pumped Storage Plant (1,050 MW) *
Kazunogawa Pumped Storage Power Station The Kazunogawa Pumped Storage Power Station is a Pumped-storage hydroelectricity, pumped-storage hydroelectric power station near Kōshū, Yamanashi, Kōshū in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. The station is designed to have an installed capacity o ...
(800 MW) * Kannagawa Hydropower Plant (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 traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...
,
Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...
and
Subaru 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 largest aut ...
to promote it.


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 electric vehicle charging, fast-charging system for battery electric vehicles, developed in 2010 by the CHAdeMO Association, formed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company and five major Japanese automakers. The name is an abbreviation o ...
, electric vehicle standard *
Nuclear power in Japan Nuclear power generated 5.55% of Japan's electricity in 2023. The country's nuclear power industry was heavily influenced by the Fukushima accident, caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Before 2011, Japan was generating up to 30% of ...
* International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Co., Ltd (JINED) * Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) * Radiation effects from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster *
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 comp ...
*
Masao Yoshida (nuclear engineer) was a nuclear engineer who served as plant manager of the Tokyo Electric Power Company Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant during the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Early life and career Yoshida was born in Osaka, Japan in 1955 and graduated f ...
* Shunichi Yamashita, physician in radiation sickness field *
Murder of Yasuko Watanabe was a 39-year-old unmarried 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 an unknown assai ...
(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 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011, a related Fuku ...
, 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 Companies in the Nikkei 225 Articles containing video clips Chiyoda, Tokyo