The Tokyo Electric Power Company
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The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (東京電力株式会社 Tōkyō Denryoku Kabushiki-gaisha?) (TYO: 9501 ), also known as Toden (東電 Tōden?) or TEPCO, is an electric utility with its operational area of Kanto region (including Tokyo metropolitan district) , Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern area of Shizuoka Prefecture. The company is viewed as one of the leading companies in Japan, as well as the leader of Japanese electric industry. Its headquarter is located in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The company's power generation portfolio consists of two main parts. One is the fossil fuel power plants around Tokyo Bay for peak load supply, and the other is the nuclear power plants in Fukushima and Niigata Prefecture for base load supply. Additionally, Hydroelectric plants in the mountainous areas in the outskirt of Kanto Plain, though it has relatively small capacity compared with fossil fuel and nuclear, bear an essential role in peak load supply. The company procures electricity from other regional or wholesale electric power companies such as The Tohoku Electric Power, The J-Power, and The Japan Atomic Power Company.
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[edit] History
The nine regional electric companies including TEPCO were established in 1951 with the end of the state-run electric industry regime for the wartime national mobilization.
In the 50's, the company's main and vital mission was rapid recovery from the infrastructure devastation of the WW2. After the recovery period, the company had to expand its supply capacity to catch up with the Country's spectacular economic growth by developing fossil fuel power plants and more efficient transmission network.
In the 60's and 70's, the company met a challenge of environmental pollution and oil shocks. The answer to these problems was practical application of LNG fuel for thermal power plants and nuclear power plants. The first nuclear unit in Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant started its operational generation in March 26, 1970.
During 80's and 90's, the widespread of air-conditioners and IT/OA appliances resulted a demand gap between daytime and midnight. For the purpose of reducing surplus generation capacity and increase of utilization factor, the company start developing pumped storage hydroelectric power plants, and promoting thermal storage units.
Recently the company is expected to play a key part in achieving the national target by the Kyoto Protocol for reduced carbon dioxide emissions. It also faces the deregulation trend in electric industry and low growth in power demand.
[edit] Scandal
In August 29, 2002, the government revealed that the company had been conducting wide-ranging fraud such as false reporting in the routine governmental inspection in its nuclear plants and systematic concealment of plant incidents. The company saw the most serious situation in its history that the high level resignations and the suspension order of all of its nuclear plants. New President made a public commitment that the company would take all the drastic counter measures necessary to prevent such frauds and restore the nation's confidence. Until the end of 2005, the suspended plants had been restarted with the government's approval.
In 2007, However, the Company announced to the public that inside investigation revealed unreported incidents including unexpected unit criticality in 1978 and systematic false reporting, which they could not find in the 2002 investigation. In addition to the serial scandal of other electric companies, this failure in ensuring corporate compliance resulted in strong criticism to electric power industry and nuclear policy.
[edit] offices
| Name | Location | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarter | 1-1-3 Uchisaiwai-Cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo | |
| Tokyo Branch | 5-4-9 Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo |
[edit] Power Plants
[edit] Nuclear
| Name | Location | Number of units | Generation Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fukushima-Daiichi (Fukushima 1) | 22 Kitahara, Mezawa, Okuma Town, Futaba County, Fukushima | ||
| Fukushima-Daini(Fukushima 2) | 12 Obamatsukuri, Namikura, Narawa Town, Futaba County, Fukushima | ||
| Kashiwazaki-Kariwa | 16-46 Aoyama-Cho, Kashiwazaki City, Niigata |
[edit] Thermal
| Name | Location | Number of units | Generation Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chiba | |||
| Goi | |||
| Anegasaki | |||
| Sodegaura | |||
| Futtsu | |||
| Kashima | |||
| Hitachinaka | |||
| Oi | |||
| Shinagawa | |||
| Yokosuka | |||
| Kawasaki | |||
| Yokohama | |||
| Minami Yokohama | |||
| Higashi Ogishima |
[edit] hydro
[edit] others
[edit] External links
- Tepco website (English)
- Tepco website (Japanese)
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