Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power has been forced to postpone the restart of its 1,180MW Genkai No.4 nuclear reactor because of a technical problem.
Kyushu on 28 September detected a failure at one of the valves in the main steam system at Genkai in southern Japan’s Saga prefecture. The company was about to reactivate the reactor on 30 September and resume test generation on 2 October in the final phase of its turnaround that began on 27 July. It is currently unclear when the Genkai No.4 reactor will be brought back on line.
The extended closure will not immediately affect Kyushu’s electricity supplies, given that its three other reactors are in operation. But the 890MW Sendai No.1 reactor in Kagoshima prefecture is expected to shut for maintenance over 16 October-20 December, according to the Japan Electric Power Exchange data. This may encourage Kyushu to increase gas-fired output in the case of a delayed restart of the Genkai reactor.
The absence of 2,070MW of nuclear capacity could theoretically increase LNG demand by 198,740 t/month, when considering generation efficiency of 49pc, based on the 10-year average efficiency of the country’s gas-fired fleets.
The postponement of the Genkai reactor restart comes after the recent unexpected shut down of the 700MW Reihoku No.1 coal-fired unit. Kyushu was forced to close the Reihoku unit on 23 September following a steam leak, with its restart date still unknown. The prolonged absence of the baseload coal-fed unit may further prompt Kyushu to lift gas-fired utilisation.