, opens new tab and Chubu Electric Power (9502.T), opens new tab reported 93.4 billion yen ($619 million) in profit for the April-June quarter down 48% from the year-ago period.The fall in profit showed the impact of a drop in the time-lag gain - when a change in fuel prices is reflected in sale prices with a delay - which shrank to 20.3 billion yen in the quarter from 155.3 billion yen a year earlier.JERA Japan's biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) its profit excluding the time-lag effects increased to 73 billion yen from 23.1 billion yen a year earlier due to improved competitiveness in procuring LNG and thermal coal."We always make an effort to purchase fuels at lower prices.. some deals where we tried to fix coal prices backfired We've made improvements this year," JERA's executive officer told a news conference.Asked about the timing of restarting Taketoyo plant Maekawa said no date has been set yet.The Taketoyo shutdown is expected to have a negative impact of several tens of billions of yen for the full-year due to the use of alternative fuels such as LNG but this estimate has been factored into the annual forecast JERA maintained its annual forecast of 200 billion yen profit.($1 = 150.7700 yen)Reporting by Yuka Obayashi Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved reported net profit of 138.9 billion yen for the six months through Sept down 52% from the year-ago period.The decline in profit reflected a sharp drop in so-called time-lag gains which shrank to 16.6 billion yen in the first-half from 215.9 billion yen a year earlier The gains stem from delays in reflecting fuel price changes in its power prices.However due to improved competitiveness in procuring thermal coal and LNG."Last year hedging against coal price fluctuations through derivatives backfired But we've seen an improvement in the sector this year," JERA's executive officer which meets around 80% of its domestic LNG demand through term contracts buys additional fuel from the spot market during peak demand season in summer and winter while selling excess supply when demand is lower."The market situation and the ratio of our long-term contracts and spot transactions also helped improve the competitiveness of LNG procurement this year," Maekawa said.JERA's independent power producer business in North America suffered some losses in mark-to-market values of derivatives positions adding that JERA considered that to be a temporary phenomenon.($1 = 153.0300 yen)Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Sonali Paul Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information The Unit 5 of Jera Co.'s at Taketoyo Thermal Power Station in Taketoyo Town 2024 at 2:59 AM ESTBookmarkSaveLock This article is for subscribers only.A coal-fired generator shut down after a fire broke out at Jera Co.’s Taketoyo power plant in Aichi prefecture in Japan Fire fighters are still working to extinguish the blaze after an explosion in a boiler facility area according to a spokesperson for the Central Chita Fire Department The department received reports of the fire at 3:11 p.m and a conveyor belt that carries coal to the structure is also burning An explosion occurred Wednesday at a thermal power plant in Aichi Prefecture with no immediate reports of injuries due to the incident Firefighters received an emergency call at around 3:10 p.m reporting an explosion and that black smoke was rising at the plant in Taketoyo run by Jera Co. a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc The explosion apparently occurred inside a boiler facility on the 13th floor of a building A conveyor system used to transport fuel also caught fire Jera said the power plant uses coal and woody biomass as fuel and has a maximum output of 1.07 million kilowatts its generator was shut down at around 3:30 p.m The incident has not impacted electricity supplies in the plant's service area the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said A man who was working at a nearby construction site said "The ground rumbled as if lightning had struck nearby To have the latest news and stories delivered to your inbox Simply enter your email address below and an email will be sent through which to complete your subscription Please check your inbox for a confirmation email Thank you for reaching out to us.We will get back to you as soon as possible This website uses cookies primarily for visitor analytics. 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To view our full cookie policy, please click here You can also view it at any time by going to our Contact Us page All operations at the plant were stopped after smoke was detected at around 15:14 local time A fire was confirmed to have broken out on a belt conveyor used for transporting coal and woody biomass Officials later confirmed that no one was injured during the incident and that all workers were accounted for The local fire department was notified and arrived at the scene soon after when attempts began to extinguish the blaze The fire was brought under control after a couple of hours before being extinguished at around 20:00 local time a fire broke out again on the conveyor belt which firefighters managed to extinguish after a couple of hours JERA said it had completed a series of emergency inspections and confirmed that no abnormalities were detected in the system equipment JERA said it had checked for abnormalities in mechanical equipment that could be a source of ignition (electric motors visually inspected and confirmed that there are no abnormal noises confirmed that the filter of the dust collector was not clogged and confirmed that there was no significant accumulation of dust around a series of biomass fuel system equipment JERA said it would proceed with systematic cleaning of areas where a slight accumulation of dust has been observed JERA added that the Taketoyo Thermal Power Station will be thoroughly investigated to ensure that such a fire accident will never occur again The company has also established an accident investigation committee regarding the fire accident at the power plant.This committee is chaired by Tetsuya Watanabe Executive Vice President and Executive Officer of the Company with the participation of Professor Ichiro Naruse of Nagoya University as an outside expert to utilise objective and professional knowledge and is based on a thorough investigation and analysis Print this page | E-mail this page Hazardex Live 2024 event review Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information National Report Aichi Prefecture–Firefighters are battling a blaze that broke out at a massive thermal power plant here on the afternoon of Jan following emergency calls reporting loud explosions and black smoke rising from the facility Smoke rose near a boiler at around 3:15 p.m. followed by fire erupting from a conveyor belt carrying fuel The plant was then taken offline at 3:29 p.m. "I heard a loud 'bang' at home and the windows shook violently," said a man in his 80s who lives nearby The power station is located on an approximately 630,000-square-meter site in the town’s Ryugu district housing a 1.07-gigawatt unit fueled by coal and woody biomass is one of the largest thermal power generators in the country with an output equivalent to a typical nuclear reactor Jera is jointly owned by a Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc NRA’s fuel ban could delay TEPCO’s reactor restart plan China’s CGN says nuclear station meets safety rules reports of leak Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent An explosion occurred at JERA Co.’s Taketoyo Thermal Power Station in Taketoyo Several residents in the neighborhood informed the fire department that there was an explosion and black smoke was rising and the fire department is investigating the situation closely Taketoyo Thermal Power Plant is a power plant fueled by coal and woody biomass and started operation in August 2022 JERA is a power generation company jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc Our weekly ePaper presents the most noteworthy recent topics in an exciting © 2025 The Japan News - by The Yomiuri Shimbun Please view the main text area of the page by skipping the main menu. The page may not be displayed properly if the JavaScript is deactivated on your browser Japanese version Today's print edition Home Delivery Japan's biggest power generator Jera is set to start a new 1.07 gigawatt coal-fired power plant in Taketoyo in Aichi Prefecture early next month which could help to alleviate electricity crunches in the summer and winter It is a rare example of a new coal power plant being built in a developed country as many industrialized nations have been shutting down coal plants for years to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); the world's fifth-biggest carbon dioxide emitter 5 unit at Taketoyo thermal power station to replace three old oil-fired units was unpopular when the utility sought government approval In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. 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It is the world's second largest LNG importer behind China.Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Emily Chow in Singapore; Editing by Kim Coghill A state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant that will soon go online in the seaside town of Taketoyo in Aichi Prefecture is expected to help alleviate Japan’s electricity supply shortage But the move to power up such a major carbon emitter as other major industrialized countries push toward decarbonization has been criticized as a step in the wrong direction announced on July 14 that it will start the No 5 unit of its Taketoyo thermal power station on Aug The new unit boasts the highest level of electricity-generating capacity among thermal power stations in Japan which is almost the same as that of a nuclear power reactor said at a briefing session held in Taketoyo on July 14 that it “will significantly contribute to the stable provision (of electricity).” The government has called on the public and businesses across the country to conserve electricity between July and September it warned people in areas served by Tokyo Electric Power Co to conserve energy as a precautionary measure against power outages The electricity shortage is expected to become even more severe in winter One of the causes is a decline in the number of thermal power plants which generate more than 70 percent of the electricity in Japan Major electricity companies have suspended or closed a series of thermal power plants that were aging or had become unprofitable According to the ministry of trade and industry thermal power plants with a total generating capacity of 18.52 gigawatts were shuttered from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2021 The Taketoyo thermal power station used to generate electricity by burning oil with three boilers Jera finalized the plan to build the new unit in 2015 built a new large unit over four years and finally gave it a test run in January The coal plant will now emit 70 percent more CO2 annually than it used to the thermal plant has been criticized for flying in the face of the government’s push toward decarbonization by 2050 since burning coal emits an enormous amount of CO2 The company was only able to start construction of the new unit after announcing that 17 percent of its fuel would be wooden biomass to cut down on its CO2 emissions a series of new coal power plants were greenlit to be built across Japan as electricity companies were finding it difficult to determine when they could restart their nuclear power plants It is not the only sign that Japan is behind the pack at efforts to become carbon neutral At the Group of Seven summit in Germany in June European countries and Japan were at odds over whether their joint statement should clearly say when they will end coal-power generation The statement said they will phase-out coal power Although Japan has been demolishing its aging coal power stations it has not decided to do away with them altogether of limiting the share of coal in Japan’s supply mix to 19 percent by fiscal 2030 which is lower than its ratio of 31 percent in fiscal 2020 (This article was written by Hisashi Naito and Shiki Iwasawa.) Last planned coal plant project in Japan scrapped amid green push Thermal plant problem causes power outage scare in Tokyo Nagasaki isle coal power plant may fall to go green movement Clean energy strategy to seek ‘maximum’ use of nuclear power Coal-fired plants past their best to be shut down Japanese version Okinawa Prefecture--Incumbent Mayor Taketoyo Toguchi is certain to clinch a second term in a race centered on the pros and cons of a contentious U.S 23 election with backing from the central government which is pushing the project to build a new facility to replace the functions of the U.S Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan Although Toguchi refrained from being drawn on the base issue during campaigning his silence effectively marks tacit approval for the project he called for programs to develop the city with funding from the central government as a reward for hosting the U.S a former Nago assembly member who is opposed to the base project was backed by Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki as well as the opposition camp The Nago mayoral race is the first of a series of key elections that will be held in the prefecture this year including the gubernatorial election in autumn Tokyo pushes Henoko issue as opponents reel from new setback Worker at bases in Okinawa worried about no-mask troops