Global Energy Policy Research

Kansai Electric Power (KEPCO) issued a press release on June 21 with the title [trans.] “Negawatt Trading for Large Customers Outside Kansai Electric Power’s Service Area.” The press release is available on the KEPCO website for further reading of the details　(in Japanese only). This announcement relates to the expansion of negawatt trading, which KEPCO calls the “Negawatt Plan” within its service area, to the part of the 60Hz power grid in Japan comprising the service areas of Chubu Electric Power, Hokuriku Electric Power, and Chugoku Electric Power.

Last year's earthquake has stirred up a vigorous debate about the cost of generating electricity. It has already been introduced (through news stories) that the Commission for the Investigation of the Costs of the Cabinet Office's Energy and Environment Conference reevaluated the cost of generating electricity with nuclear power plants last December. But what is important here is to fairly evaluate "the inci　dental costs of electricity generation" for all sources of electricity and compare them in a table.

I would like to express my heartfelt concerns toward everyone who has been affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, particularly the evacuees who have been subjected to the problems associated with the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

This article showed reserves of the shale gas. Reserves are abundant in the United States and China, countries with high energy consumptions. Therefore, it points out that it is benefitial for both energy security and global warming policy.

The "Renewable Energy Buyback Program" is to be implemented in July of this year in Japan. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's Procurement Cost Appraisal Committee calculates that the renewable energy purchase price will "equal ¥42 per kilowatt hour," and will be taking public commentary until the first of June. This is indistinguishable from the energy companies' "fully distributed cost method" of recent infamy, and it is a system that guarantees solar energy profits for power companies. This would not be a problem if it were a reasonable price, but the current status of the world's solar cell market indicates otherwise.

It showed Direct Load Control ,which electric power company control directly and remotely each demands, was effective in efforts to reduce demand peak.

It's hard to find a day when the words "smart grid" don't appear in the newspaper. Usage of this term is becoming pervasive, although the general understanding of its meaning may be limited to just a new kind of power grid. The idea of "smart grid" is not new, but its significance is new in the sense that the whole world has focused attention on it as a key plank of Green New Deal introduced by the Obama administration.

[SUMMARY] We made a quick review of electricity generating costs by major power sources and nuclear power economics. A balance of fixed costs and variable costs makes economic assessment more complex. Building new nuclear power plants is getting more difficult in advanced countries because of higher initial costs and higher risks, therefore, small modular reactors (SMRs) are the focus of feasible nuclear reactors in the future.