At a regular press meeting on January 23, Chairman Makoto Yagi of the Federation of Electric Power Companies (FEPC) of Japan started by remarking on his thoughts about the previous year of 2014, in which he said “we saw some light.”
He was referring to progress in the compatibility examinations of the Sendai-1 and -2 Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) of Kyushu Electric Power Co. under the country’s new regulatory standards.
FEPC’s Yagi then went on to talk about his hopes for 2015, a year during which he said that he looked forward to Japan’s electric power industry’s “breaking out of the current bleak situation and producing better results.”
New targets for Japan’s national energy mix are now being deliberated, and Chairman Yagi said that he hoped for the “prompt” determination of future vision of energy that would be “practical and balanced.” He added that he wanted the energy mix to consider the real needs of Japan “as a nation poor in natural resources,” as well as measures toward its realization.
Regarding the third stage of electricity market reform — deliberations on a legal framework to start in the upcoming ordinary Diet session — he said that the nation’s NPPs should be restarted gradually in order to make reform effective, as that would help stabilize supply and demand.
At the same time, he said that he hoped that a better environment would be created for the domestic nuclear business. He also expressed his determination that FEPC would do its utmost to resolve issues and eliminate concerns.
