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
While new solar development in Japan has slowed in recent years, the sector reached a new milestone in 2025, with generation across the nine mainland areas exceeding 11% of 365-day rolling demand for the first time.
Tohoku EPCO has been unlocking additional capacity at its dam-based hydropower plants by adjusting water throughput, allowing it to increase output without CAPEX-heavy equipment upgrades. It applied the approach at five assets to date.
With Japan’s operational grid-scale battery storage capacity still limited, the balancing market remains a major revenue source. Unlike energy arbitrage, it does not require full charge–discharge cycles to build trading volume and generate revenue, allowing owners to operate below 0.5 cycles per day on average. Below are the average daily cycles for three of the country’s largest operational assets with available data.
