October 1, 2011
Japan

Northern utilities seeking expanded ewind power

nikkei.com 1 October 2011

Three regional electric utilities said Friday that they will conduct tests aimed at increasing wind power generation in northern Japan.

The effort, tentatively scheduled for fiscal 2014, will involve Hokkaido Electric Power Co. (9509), Tohoku Electric Power Co. (9506) and Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501), also known as Tepco.

Electric companies use conventional power plants to compensate for swings in output from wind farms. Since both Hokkaido Electric and Tohoku Electric have scant fossil-fuel-based generating capacity, they have little freedom to scale up wind power generation.

The two utilities will experiment with leveraging Tepco’s ample conventional capacity to give themselves more leeway to receive output from wind farms.

In the meantime, they are looking to recruit wind farm operators. Hokkaido Electric is seeking an additional 200,000kw of wind power supply in fiscal 2011, while Tohoku Electric will try to add 400,000kw in fiscal 2011-12. Both companies will host information sessions in December.

(The Nikkei Oct. 1 morning edition)

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/01/northern-utilities-seeking-expanded-wind-power/