Difficulty of Power Company Management

Having three years passed from disastrous accident in nuclear reactors in Fukushima, it is becoming clear which power companies are healthy and which are not. In the settlements in March 2014, six out of ten power companies in Japan marked current account deficit, suffering from difficulty of resuming nuclear reactors or price hike of resources for thermal power generation. Tokyo Electric Power Company, which caused all these deficits by an incredible accident, significantly increased its surplus for some reason. It is one of the biggest mysteries in Japan.

There is no nuclear reactor in Japan working now. Companies with current account deficit, Hokkaido, Chubu, Kansai, Shikoku, Kyushu and Chugoku had difficulties in procurement of resources, mainly liquidated natural gas. Cheap yen driven by economy policy by Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, brought significant impact on those companies.

On the other hand, Tohoku, Tokyo, Hokuriku and Okinawa yielded surplus in their balance. Basic reason of the black for Tohoku was raising price for power appliance. Hokuriku has basically been with strong reliance on water hydroelectric generation. Okinawa possessing no reactor has nothing to do with nuclear generation. Those three could limit the impact of current circumstances.

Current account surplus of TEPCO was nothing but something eyebrow raising, which amounted to ¥101 billion. Considering that it had secured its income of ¥243 billion by raising appliance price, the surplus could not be recognized as management efforts. Since the government had been controlling electricity price, cooperation between Abe administration and TEPCO raised the ailing company to the black.

It is understandable for the people to be frustrated with profitable TEPCO, while it is highly reluctant to compensating victims of the melt-down accident in Fukushima. Tokyo Shimbun strictly accused TEPCO of its laziness in maintenance of thermal power plants.

Outstanding contradiction of TEPCO was that it had been paying for Japan Atomic Power Company, a power company that entirely focusing on nuclear power generation, without any result of its power generation. Although the reason of the payment was buying electricity from JAPC, there was no record that TEPCO had bought that. It is likely that TEPCO keeps on supporting not to lose momentum of nuclear power generation in Japan.

Let’s think twice. If TEPCO or some others need to raise its fee, not for its survival, but for sustainable power supply, do it. But resumption of nuclear generation is something different. What we need to do while all the reactors are halted is to increase share of renewable energy as much as possible. It’s not a matter of economy but civilization.