Japan“s Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. said it will begin retailing electricity as early as April 2001, entering Japan“s partially deregulated power market by selling its own excess output.
Asahi Glass, Japa…
Japan“s Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. said it will begin retailing electricity as early as April 2001, entering Japan“s partially deregulated power market by selling its own excess output. Asahi Glass, Japan“s largest comprehensive glassmaker, said about 17,000 kilowatts (kW) will be available in Kyushu, as a company plant there is set to stop producing soda ash and calcium chloride by end-March. The Kitakyushu plant in Fukuoka Prefecture has total power output capacity of 40,900 kW, generated using C-type fuel oil, a company spokesman said. Negotiations with potential buyers will begin in October when power utilities start cutting rates. The company recently applied to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to become a registered non-power retailer of electricity to large-lot industrial and commercial users, which has been allowed since March. Asahi Glass is the third non-power firm to seek such registration following Diamond Power Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of trading house Mitsubishi Corp., and trading house Marubeni Corp., a MITI official said. Diamond Power has been supplying electricity since August to Mitsubishi group company offices and also won a MITI one-year supply tender, ending the regional monopoly by the giant Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc. In Fukuoka, US energy and communications giant Enron Corp. is considering building a thermal power plant to enter the deregulated large-lot market, which accounts for nearly 30% of the country“s total power use, media reports have said.