Electricity sector in Japan
| Share of renewable energy | 9.7% (2009) |
|---|---|
| Average electricity use (2012) | 988.9 TWh |
The electric power industry in Japan covers the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electric energy in Japan. Japan consumed 988.9 TWh of electricity in 2012.
In 2008, Japan consumed an average of 8507 kWh/person of electricity. That was 115% of the EU15 average of 7409 kWh/person and 95% of the OECD average of 8991 kWh/person.
Compared with other nations, electricity in Japan is relatively expensive.
Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and the subsequent large scale shutdown on the nuclear power industry, Japan’s ten regional electricity operators have been making very large financial losses, larger than US$ 15 billion in both 2012 and 2013.
Since then steps have been made to liberalize the electricity supply market. In April 2016 domestic and small business mains voltage customers became able to select from over 250 supplier companies competitively selling electricity, though many of these only sell locally mainly in large cities. Also wholesale electricity trading on the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX), which previously only traded 1.5% of power generation, was encouraged. By June 2016 more than 1 million consumers had changed supplier. However total costs of liberalization to that point were around ¥80 billion, so it is unclear if consumers had benefited financially.
In 2020 transmission and distribution infrastructure access will be made more open, which will help competitive suppliers cut costs.
Electricity transmission in Japan is unusual because the country is divided for historical reasons into two regions each running at a different mains frequency.
Eastern Japan (including Tokyo, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Yokohama, and Sendai) runs at 50 Hz; Western Japan (including Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Hiroshima) runs at 60 Hz. This originates from the first purchases of generators from AEG for Tokyo in 1895 and from General Electric for Osaka in 1896.
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