Hokuriku Electric Power commissioned the 584kW Tsurugi Furumachi Power Plant on May 2, 2025, the company announced on the same day.
The company began construction of the run-of-river power plant in Hakusan City, Ishikawa Prefecture, in February 2022. METI data suggests the project was feed-in-tariff (FIT) certified the following month. At the time, like today, hydro projects between 200kW and 1MW were offered 29 yen per kWh for 20 years. The power plant is expected to generate about 4.6GWh annually.
Tsurugi Furumachi Power Plant was built adjacent to the 1.6MW run-of-river Tsurugi Power Plant, which was commissioned in 1937.
It is Hokuriku EPCO’s first hydro power plant built since setting a goal to add 1GW or more of new renewable capacity compared to FY2018 level by the early 2030s. It follows three new hydro plants totaling about 30MW that the utility’s group companies brought online between 2022 and 2024.
Hokuriku EPCO plans to commission one more new power plant as part of its hydro expansion efforts, the 2MW Hanatate Power Plant in 2030. Groupwide, it plans nine more repowering projects in addition to the two completed in May 2023 and May 2025.
Currently, Hokuriku EPCO operates over 130 hydroelectric power plants totaling more than 1.9GW. Its group companies operate over 20 additional assets with a combined capacity of more than 200MW.
Separately from expanding hydropower, Hokuriku EPCO has also been growing its solar capacity through PPAs and increasing biomass co-firing rates at its thermal power plants in its push to introduce more renewable generation into its generation mix.
Correction (May 16, 2025): The previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that Hokuriku EPCO group was planning eight more repowering projects.
