Kansai Electric Power plans to decommission two of Gobo Thermal Power Station’s three 600MW units by the end of June 2026, the company announced on September 26, 2025.
According to the statement, the utility expects to decommission Unit 2, which has been shut down since April 1, 2016, first, on October 31, 2025. The currently operational Unit 1 is expected to follow on June 30, 2026. The Denki Shimbun reported on September 29, 2025, that the company will also consider participating with Unit 3 in the backup power plant auction or shutting it down.
The heavy and crude oil-fueled Gobo Thermal Power Station, sited on a 35ha artificial island in Gobo City, Wakayama Prefecture, was commissioned in phases between September 1984 and March 1985. It is one of the utility’s two oil-fired power plants alongside the 40MW Kansai International Airport Energy Center, which uses kerosene.
Kansai EPCO’s thermal power plant portfolio also includes the 1.8GW coal-fired Maizuru in Kyoto Prefecture and four LNG-fired power plants including the 1.8GW Nanko in Osaka Prefecture and the 1.44GW Himeji No. 1 in Hyogo Prefecture, both of which are expected to be repowered in the early 2030s amid the company’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
