Japan’s Hibikinada biomass plant to shut for conversion

Japanese housing and energy company Daiwa House Industry will close this week the 112MW biomass and coal co-fired generation unit at its Hibikinada power complex to fully convert it to biomass.

Daiwa plans to shut the unit at Kitakyushu city in south Japan's Fukuoka prefecture on 11 April, according to a notice by Japan Electric Power Exchange (Jepx). The unit plans to convert fully to biomass by April 2026, with the unit off line from this week for preparations to only burn biomass as a generation fuel, Daiwa said.

Japan's power producers plan to cut 189MW of thermal capacity during the week to 14 April, with the closure of 6.7GW outstripping the addition of 6.6GW, according to Argus' survey based on a notice by Jepx. The difference incorporates the net drop in oil-fired capacity of 700MW and the net increase in coal-fired capacity of 104MW and gas-fired capacity of 407MW.

Mild spring weather has finally arrived in many areas of the country that has capped electricity demand. Japan's total power demand averaged 88GW during 1-7 April, down by 6pc from the previous week, show data from nationwide transmission system operator the Organisation for Cross-regional Co-ordination of Transmission Operators.

By Reina Maeda