Japanese utility Tohoku Electric Power, which serves more than 7.5 million customers, in April 2015 plans to transfer coal-fired generation plant Haramachi on wood chips. The power station with the capacity of 2000 MW will be launched as part of the program for reduction of greenhouse emissions.
Today Haramachi is one of the largest coal-fired power stations owned by Tohoku. It is located in the north-eastern part of Fukushima prefecture. The upgrade of the plant is scheduled to be completed by March 2015.
It is expected that Tohoku Electric Power will consume about 600 000 tons of wood chips produced at Haramachi, cutting coal consumption by around 20 000 tons per year and reducing CO2 emissions by around 50 000 tons annually.
In 2013 Tohoku's biomass consumption increased to 9.385 tons in comparison with 621 tons in 2012. Coal consumption also increased by more than twice from 3.6 million tons to 8.2 million tons during the same period. Increased demand for coal has arisen due to the reopening of the plant Haramachi in March-April 2013 after two years of closure following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
As a result of the disaster in 2011 there were closed several nuclear power statoions which belonged to the company as well. For instance, Onagawa and Higashidori plants. It is expected that Higashidori plant will restart in July 2015 and Onagawa will resume operation in 2016. In genereal, Tohoku owns around 230 thermal, nuclear, geothermal, solar and hydro power plants with the total installed capacity of 17,766 MW of electricity.
It is seen that Tohoku Electric Power, which is one of the largest utilities in Japan, transfers its coal-fired power stations on biomass, including wood chips, as part of the program for reduction of greenhouse emissions that testifies to the company's environmental responsibility and intention to meet all the necessary standards and requirements.
Author: Ivan Prokhorov
