Tepco to raise gas turbines capacity at Kashima power plant

Thu Feb 9, 2012

TOKYO Feb 9 (Reuters) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. said on Thursday it was making three emergency units at its Kashima power plant permanent, and upgrading their capacity to make up for power shortages caused by the shutdown of nuclear reactors over safety fears.

The Kashima plant, east of Tokyo, currently has a total capacity of 4,400 MW.

The units being upgraded were originally emergency gas-fired turbines that the Kashima plant relied on to generate more power after a March 2011 tsunami and earthquake damaged some Japanese nuclear reactors and led to the closure of several others.

The three units, which are due to start operating on a full-time basis in July, are capable of generating a combined 804 MW of power, but the upgrade, which will end by July 2014, will increase their capacity to 1,248 MW, Tepco said.

Tepco has also said it would upgrade three other emergency turbines at its Chiba power plant.

All but three of the Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are off-line, mostly for safety checks and the government is keen to boost power output to avoid a serious crunch in the summer, when demand for electricity peaks.

(sourced Reuters)

Sumitomo Metal Ind says no plan to declare force majeure

Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:08am GMT

TOKYO, March 16 (Reuters) - Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd Japan's third-biggest steelmaker, said it had no plan to declare force majeure on input deliveries. The company has suspended operations of the two giant blast furnaces at its mainstay Kashima plant in Ibaraki prefecture after the quake and tsunami.

Damage at the Kashima port is not large, although some of the company's unloading cranes collapsed, a shipping company source said.(Reporting by Yuko Inoue; Editing by Joseph Radford,sourced:Reuters)

Tags : damage, Kashima Port, unloading cranes collapsed, shipping