All 10 power firms to raise rates in March

January 31, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's 10 major electricity suppliers will raise their rates in March, according to their billing plans announced Tuesday.

The hikes mainly reflect higher prices for crude oil, liquefied natural gas and coal used as fuel for thermal power generation.

The March bills for an average household will rise by 21 yen to 80 yen from February.

The power firms will conduct rate hikes together for the first time since June last year.

The largest rise will be at Okinawa Electric Power Co., which will mark up the standard household rate by 80 yen to 7,321 yen.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co. and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. will raise their rates by 76 yen and 52 yen, respectively.

Chugoku Electric Power Co. and Shikoku Electric Power Co. will both increase their rates by 49 yen.

All four major gas suppliers, including Tokyo Gas Co. will increase their rates for March by 14 yen to 19 yen for average households, following higher LNG prices used as raw materials. Jiji Press