Hokuriku Electric Power began the environmental assessment for a new 600MW LNG-fired unit it is looking to build at its Toyama Shinko Thermal Power Station in Imizu City, Toyama Prefecture, and further delayed decommissioning of the plant’s 250MW Coal Unit 1 to FY2028, the company said on February 27, 2025.
“We are not in a position to secure sufficient capacity in the short term,” said Hokuriku EPCO’s statement about the delay in retiring the coal-fired unit, citing Shika Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 2 not having restarted yet among other reasons. It also referred to Nanao Ota Thermal Power Station’s long-term shutdown following the 2024 Noto earthquake, which demonstrated the need for having back-up capacity.
Before the first postponement to FY2024, Hokuriku EPCO planned to decommission the unit in FY2018. It plans to limit its use to minimize environmental burden while keeping it online to ensure stable power supply.
The new combined cycle gas turbine, which will become the power plant’s LNG Unit 2, is expected to commission in FY2033. Hokuriku EPCO submitted a “planning-stage document on primary environmental impact consideration” for the unit to METI and Toyama Prefecture on February 27, 2025.
The Toyama Shinko power plant currently has two 250MW coal-fired units commissioned in 1971 and 1972, respectively, a 240MW oil-fired unit commissioned in 1974, a 500MW oil-fired unit commissioned in 1981, and a 425MW LNG-fired unit commissioned in 2018. The older oil-fired unit has been offline since October 2020 due to difficulties with sourcing fuel. The power plant’s LNG Unit 1 is the company’s only LNG-fired unit.
With a combined capacity of about 1.7GW, Toyama Shinko Thermal Power Station is the largest of Hokuriku EPCO’s 4.6GW.
