Tag - utilities

 
 

UTILITIES

Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2017
Utilities put on notice: Municipalities looking to sell energy to residents
The latest threat to the nation’s biggest utilities is growing in rural communities like Miyama, a town in Kyushu with a population of about 38,000. It may spread to the big cities next.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 25, 2017
U.S. lays groundwork for saving coal plants with grid report
The Energy Department, in a long-anticipated report on the security of the U.S. electric grid, makes the case for rescuing America’s coal industry from widespread plant shutdowns but stops short of the assault on renewable power that environmentalists had feared.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2017
Taiwan blackout affects millions of households amid stifling summer heat
Taiwan suffered a massive power blackout on Tuesday evening that hit businesses and residential homes, affecting close to 7 million households on the heavily industrialized island amid sweltering heat.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 22, 2017
Chubu Electric uses artificial nests so crows don’t build their own on power towers
Chubu Electric Power Co. has adopted a unique method to deter crows from nesting on transmission towers and causing blackouts by building artificial bird nests far from the power lines.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2017
Japan’s power producers to face china coal pain after steel
First it was Japan’s steel makers, now it’s the nation’s power producers that are set to pay for China’s coal policies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Mar 4, 2017
Will we ever see no obstacles in our way?
Infrastructure in Japan is up to world standards in most areas, and in terms of public transportation it often surpasses those standards — but there’s one field it falls way behind: utility poles and overhead cables that carry electrical power and telecommunications.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 20, 2017
Tepco and Chubu Electric may integrate thermal power biz in 2018
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co. are considering integrating their thermal power generation business in fiscal 2018, a report said Monday.
WORLD
Jan 18, 2017
Canadian energy firms at bigger risk from cyber, bomb attacks, spy agency says
Canada’s main spy agency last year warned energy companies about an increasing risk of cyber espionage and attacks on pipelines, oil storage and shipment facilities and power transmission towers using homemade explosives, according to a classified document obtained by Reuters.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2016
Companies bet on sea change to tidal power in Indonesia
A well-connected Indonesian marine renewable energy company and OpenHydro, a unit of French state-owned naval defense company DCNS, aim to be the first to plug into the vast untapped tidal energy potential of the world’s biggest archipelago.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2016
Swiss vote on ending nuclear power raises prospect of more fossil fuels
Switzerland votes in a referendum on Sunday on whether to make a speedy withdrawal from atomic energy production, a move that would reduce nuclear risks but raise reliance on fossil fuels from Germany or imported nuclear power from France.
WORLD
Aug 26, 2016
Electricity to be restored on Sakhalin Island after three-day outage
Residents on the Russian island of Sakhalin face restored electricity supplies on Saturday, three days after an outage plunged most of the island into darkness.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 27, 2016
The fraud called electricity retail liberalization
Consumers may think they’re getting a good deal by switching electricity suppliers following the liberalization of the industry. They’re not.
BUSINESS
May 31, 2016
Germany readying law on nuclear waste storage costs
The German Cabinet plans to approve a draft law on Aug. 3 that will require its utilities to pay billions of euros into a state fund to help cover the cost of nuclear storage, according to an Economy Ministry timetable seen by Reuters on Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2016
Rooftop solar booms in Japan as market moves beyond utilities
Japan’s home rooftops are emerging as the next hot spot in what for years has been one of the biggest solar markets in the world, marking a move beyond the utility-scale projects in rich industrial nations that have fueled most of the industry’s growth.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2016
Knowledge is power: Navigating the household electricity market after deregulation
The country’s household and small business electricity market will be deregulated from April 1, allowing individuals to choose their electricity provider. Optimists, especially renewable energy advocates and small entrepreneurs, hope the development will break the stranglehold that the country’s 10 regional...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2016
Troubles at Takahama nuclear plant
Have nuclear plant operators taken the lessons of Fukushima to heart? Recent evidence suggests the answer is no.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2016
Reviewing the feed-in tariff system
The government will have to play a delicate game when it revises the feed-in tariff system for promoting renewable energy.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2016
California gas leak spotlights shoddy regulation of nation’s aging underground infrastructure
Long before a natural gas storage well sprung a disastrous leak near Los Angeles, utilities and national industry groups were raising alarms about the danger of aging underground storage infrastructure.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2016
Tepco unveils loyalty tie-ups in bid to retain household customers
With the retail electricity market set to be deregulated in April, Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Thursday unveiled a range of new price plans that offer discounts to customers who sign up with specific partners.
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2015
Review of feed-in tariff system
Besides boosting the use of renewable energy, the government’s review of the feed-in tariff system should also correct the overreliance on solar power among the various forms of alternative sources.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival