-- Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power Thursday reported lower electricity generation and sales volume for the fiscal year ended March 31.
Electricity produced from own facilities and received from other companies totaled 102.5 terawatt-hours, lower than the previous year's 106.8 TWh.
Production from all sources decreased, with nuclear energy output declining the steepest by 2.2 TWh to 28.6 TWh, as utilization rate dropped 6.3% to 82.3%.
Sales volume also softened year over year to 98.3 TWh from 101.0 TWh. Retail sales dropped 7 TWh to 68.6 TWh, more than offsetting a rise in wholesale volume by 4.2 TWh to 29.6 TWh.
"...although there was a decrease in retail electricity sales volume, there was an increase in profit compared to the previous year due to factors such as an increase in wheeling revenue, and a decrease in fuel costs resulting from lower power generation costs by changes in the energy mix of the thermal power generation," the company said.
For the next fiscal year, the Japanese utility expects retail electricity sales to further drop by 1.5 TWh to 67.1 TWh. It projects wholesale volume to increase by around 800 gigawatt-hours to 30.4 TWh.
These will result in a net reduction of about 800 GWh, bringing total electricity sales to 97.5 TWh.
In terms of nuclear energy output, Kyushu Electric expects a 900 GWh rise to 29.5 TWh, driven by an increase in utilization rate by 2.4% to 84.7%.