
Kansai Electric Power submitted a “planning-stage document on primary environmental impact consideration” for its Himeji No. 1 Power Station repowering project, the company announced on December 6, 2024.
According to the submitted document, Kansai EPCO will replace the power plant’s existing two combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT), which have an output of 729MW and 713MW, respectively, with three 650MW units. With that, once repowered, the power plant will have a combined output of 1.95GW instead of the current 1.44GW. The new units will have a thermal efficiency of around 63% as opposed to the current units’ 54%.
Kansai EPCO plans to begin construction work in the second half of 2029 and commission all three units by the end of FY2033 (March 31, 2034).
The two turbines to be replaced, Unit 5 and Unit 6, were commissioned in 1995 and 1996. Units 1 through 4 of the power plant, which is one of the company’s two LNG-fired power plants in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, were decommissioned in 2001. Separately from the main units, there were also two 32.7MW gas turbines at the power plant between 2012 and March 2024.