Japan's Chubu Electric is scheduled to take its maiden LNG cargo to start commissioning its new Joetsu thermal power plant in the northwest on October 8, a company source said Monday.
The company source declined to elaborate on the size and source of the cargo.
Chubu Electric's planned import of its first commission cargo comes as part of its plan to start commercial operations at the the first of the two units at the No.1 combined-cycle gas turbine with a capacity of 595 MW each in July 2012, the source said.
Although the company source declined to elaborate on its planned test run at the first 595 MW No. 1 gas-fired unit at the Joetsu plant, an industry source said that the company should be able to start test runs at the new Joetsu unit in this winter.
As a result, Chubu Electric should be able to generate some power from the new Joetsu gas-fired unit even as test runs during the country's winter power demand season, the industry source added. Japan's winter power demand season normally peaks over December-February.
The new Joetsu unit's planned test runs would help the Nagoya-based power utility to sustain its stable power supply during the peak winter power demand season, when the company is expected to continue facing its complete nuclear outage, the industry source said.
The Nagoya-based power utility was forced to buy additional fuel for its thermal power plants after suspending operations at its sole Hamaoka nuclear power plant as of May 14 in response to a request from Prime Minister Naoto Kan. It was feared that the facility might not be sufficiently earthquake- and tsunami-proof.
Chubu Electric has secured all of its additional 3.2 million mt LNG requirement for fiscal 2011-12 (April-March), mainly from Qatar, it said.
It has also secured 1.3 million kiloliters (8.18 million barrels or 22,000 b/d) of crude and fuel oil for fiscal 2011-12, the utility added.
Meanwhile, Chubu Electric plans to start up the second unit of the No.1 combined-cycle gas turbine in January 2013. The company plans to start up the first of the two No.2 CCGT units in July 2013 and bring the remaining unit on stream in May 2014. The No.2 facility also has a capacity of 595 MW each over the two units.
