Insights & Analysis
A straight-to-the-point monthly summary of important regulatory discussions and changes in Japan's power market.
In the May 2026 issue:
- Summary of METI, OCCTO, and other committee meetings
- Proposed revised thresholds for solar project EIA
- Revised capacity market withdrawal penalty system proposal
- Kyushu renewable curtailment system revision
- METI power business license and registration changes
- Nuclear power plant operational status updates
- ...and more
The next issue will be released on July 15, 2026.
Enehub Charts of the Week
For the first time since post-Fukushima restarts, daily nuclear power generation in Japan exceeded 300 GWh on December 28, 2025. It stayed above that threshold through January 13, 2026, before dropping when Onagawa 2 entered periodic inspection the following day.
TSOs’ initial FY2026 curtailment forecasts aggregated by METI suggest year-on-year increases in six areas. In Kyushu and Hokkaido, economic curtailment of solar and wind generation is expected to rise despite higher interconnector utilization for exporting power to other areas.
Battery capacity growth, along with operators’ shift from the balancing market toward energy arbitrage, will be key to turning “valueless” solar output into valuable. In 2025, approximately 10% of potential solar output was either curtailed or generated during time periods when the day-ahead market cleared at the 0.01 yen/kWh floor price.
