TOKYO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday it plans to raise its rates for electricity for corporations from April and request government approval to hike household electricity charges in a bid to offset rising fuel costs from thermal power plants, following the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Asia's largest utility firm, also known as TEPCO, said that the details of the corporate rate hike will be announced in January and relevant government officials will be asked to convene as soon as possible to approve increased tariffs for household users.
"As a result of trying to maintain our supply capacity, fuel costs are significantly increasing. If this situation continues, there is a fear that, in the near future, fuel procurement may be disrupted and the stable supply of electricity may also be affected," TEPCO President Toshio Nishizawa told a news conference Thursday.
"Taking into consideration the tough situation, we think it is inevitable to ask for an electricity rate rise from next April for corporate customers, based on the premise of an even stricter restructuring," Nishizawa said.
TEPCO said it estimates that its fuel costs for fiscal 2011 will climb by more than 800 billion yen (10.6 billion U.S. dollars) from the previous year, to around 2.31 trillion yen in the year ending March 2012.
"The 800 billion yen fuel cost increase is huge. Unless this is addressed, the company cannot operate," said Nishizawa.
The operator said that since the earthquake and tsunami- triggered nuclear crisis at its No. 1 plant in Fukushima, just two of the firm's 17 nuclear reactors are currently operational, with the majority remaining offline over safety concerns and the generation costs from alternative sources to revenue deficit widening by the day.
"It is a matter of great urgency for us to end this constant deficit financing caused by rising fuel costs," Nishizawa said.
"We need to properly work on this matter because we could be sued by shareholders if we don't do anything when it is foreseeable the company cannot maintain its operations," the utility's president added.
The embattled utility is not legally required to gain the government's permission to hike its charges for consumers of electricity whose contracts are in excess of 50 kilowatts or more, like factories and businesses, however to raise its rates for general households requires approval from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
TEPCO relies on corporate customers for around 60 percent of its electricity sales and when the planned 20 percent rate hike takes place, the utility expects around 240,000 corporate customers to be affected.
According to the Nikkei newspaper, the increased charges to corporations will net the embattled utility around 500 billion yen in additional revenue.
"Asking for electricity rate hikes is a business operator's right," Nishizawa concluded.
TEPCO's shares found traction today, climbing 5.2 percent to 222 yen, following the firm announcing its rate hike plans, but the firm's shares are still down 90 percent from March 10, a day before a magnitude-9.0 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that sparked the worst nuclear disaster in 25-years at its No. 1 facility in Fukushima prefecture in Japan's northeast.
Special Report: Massive quake shakes Japan
