Russia proposes exporting power to Japan: Nikkei
Japanese power companies have been struggling to supply stable power supplies after almost all of the nation’s nuclear plants were closed following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Russia has offered to export electricity from the island of Sakhalin to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, using undersea cables, the Nikkei business daily said on Friday, in what would be Japan’s first imports of electric power.
The proposal calls for a total transmission capacity of 4 gigawatts by 2025 at a project cost of US$5.68 billion (HK$44.1 billion), the paper said, citing an interview with Alexey Kaplun, deputy general director of Russia’s RAO Energy System of East, the biggest power utility in the Russian Far East.
Japanese power companies, including the northernmost Hokkaido Electric Power Co, have been struggling to supply stable power supplies as almost all of the nation’s nuclear plants are shut due to safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
The plan envisions exporting power generated from hydro and fossil fuel-fired plants in Sakhalin, the Nikkei said.
Japan’s Softbank Corp and Mitsui & Co. teamed up in February with Russia’s major power company Inter Rao to study Russian power exports to Japan.
RAO Energy System of East also joined the project in April, the Nikkei said.
