Although the country’s major power utilities have been submitting their electric supply plans annually, this was the first time that the outlook for the supply and demand of energy includes the smaller PPSs.
Japan experiences higher electricity demand in summer than in winter, with peak demand coming in August — expected to be 158.84GW this year (up 1.7% from FY14).
The total generating capacity of the country’s power utilities stood at 257.67GW as of the end of FY14 (i.e., March 31, 2015). Broken down, thermal power capacity accounted for 159.41GW (LNG at 74.55GW, oil at 44.45GW, and coal at 40.41 GW), or 61.9% of the total. Meanwhile, hydropower capacity was 48.14GW, nuclear power 44.26GW, solar power 4.47GW, and wind power 0.09GW.
Looking into the future, the total generating capacity of new power plants to be constructed by the country’s major power companies, PPSs and others is expected to reach 15.20GW by FY24 (not including nuclear power plants). Of that, the bulk will be accounted for by thermal power, at 14.71GW (LNG at 9.48GW, oil at 0.45GW, and coal at 4.77GW).
In addition, planned power uprates at existing power plants will add 1.00GW to total capacity by that fiscal year. On the other hand, the decommissioning of one plant will remove 7.33GW of capacity (not including NPPs).
