Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will need to consider raising electricity rates for the first time since 2012 unless it can restart the world's biggest nuclear plant.
Resumption of the Kashiwazaki Kariwa station in Niigata Prefecture is essential for sustaining profits, Tepco President Naomi Hirose said in a Saturday interview at the utility's headquarters in Tokyo. Tepco cannot continue to prop up earnings by postponing repairs and taking other cost-cutting measures, he said.
The operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 plant had expected to start two reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in July as part of its turnaround plan released in January last year. Tepco, which serves about 29 million customers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, pledged earlier this month to keep electricity rates unchanged at least this year even as inactive nuclear reactors pressure Japanese utilities to increase prices.
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